Vandalism on railway tracks endangers Paris’ big day

Everything is ready.

Streets in central Paris were cordoned off, metro stations closed and thousands of police, soldiers and other security forces were deployed to ensure security on the day of the Games’ grand opening event.

But the vandals struck far from the capital, at five seemingly undefended locations.

France’s state railway company SNCF said vandals damaged or attempted to damage five signal boxes and electrical systems between 01:00 and 05:30 on Friday morning.

A site in Courtalain, east of Le Mans and 150km southwest of Paris. A local community social media page posted a picture of burnt cables in a shallow gully, with protective SNCF paving stones thrown away.

SNCF spoke of a “massive, large-scale attack aimed at paralysing” its services, including arson and theft targeting the cable system, not only in Courtalain but also in Pagny-sur-Moselle, a village outside Metz, and Croisilles to the east, not far from the city of Arras to the north.

Small locations but located at major junctions on the high-speed TGV network.

Another attempted attack on another TGV interchange southeast of Paris at Vergigny was foiled by SNCF staff as they carried out on-site maintenance early Friday morning.

The act of sabotage was clearly coordinated and the consequences were immediate, on one of the busiest days imaginable for France’s famous railway system.

SNCF chief Jean-Pierre Farandou spoke of a “deliberate, calculated and coordinated” attack that required significant repairs.

Friday, July 26th marks the beginning of big departure or the big vacation for many French tourists leaving the city. It is also the day of the grand opening ceremony that the Paris Olympics organizers have been preparing for years.

Hundreds of stranded passengers crowded into the main halls of Gare Du Nord and Gare Montparnasse, two of Paris’ major rail hubs for passengers on major rail lines to the north and west of the capital.

Passengers at Gare du Nord patiently waited for news of delayed trains, not only within France but also to London, Brussels and Amsterdam.

The much-vaunted high-speed TGV network in and out of Paris – north to Lille, west to Le Mans and east to Strasbourg – has been shut down.

At nearby Gare de L’Est, which serves the east, an SNCF official said they were planning to move high-speed TGV trains onto other slower lines, which would mean extended delays and disruption, but would also help keep the network running.

“Everything indicates that these fires were set deliberately,” Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said. “The timing [of the attacks]The trucks were recovered after people fled, and flammable materials were found at the scene.”

This was clearly an act of vandalism and clearly intended to cause serious disruption on a day when Paris was trying to present its best image to the world.

Interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the consequences for the rail network were “huge and serious”, and that France’s intelligence services and law enforcement forces had been deployed to “find and punish those behind these criminal acts”.

But who would want to ruin the plans of hundreds of thousands of French tourists and disrupt the opening ceremony of the Olympics?

Just this week, a Russian man was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a “destabilization” plot targeting the Olympics.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was suspected of having the aim of “organizing destabilizing, interference, espionage activities” on behalf of Russia’s FSB intelligence agency.

So far, French authorities have not made any connection between Russia and the sabotage of the railway network.

A security source told French media that the arson attack bore all the hallmarks of the far-left.

In the spring, French authorities said that several groups had tried to sabotage Olympic events, including the torch relay that was taking place across France ahead of the opening ceremony.

Mr Darmanin said earlier this month that 3,570 people had been banned from the Games, including those deemed a security threat as well as “dozens of extremist individuals with links to Islamist, far-left and far-right groups”.

Nearly a million people, from athletes to coaches to Olympic volunteers, have undergone security checks ahead of the Paris Games.

But preventing vandalism at unprotected sites in rural areas is a completely different prospect.