A “far-left militant” was arrested in northwestern France on Sunday after being spotted behaving suspiciously near a railway construction site, police sources quoted by French media said.
Police searching the man’s car found technical facility keys, pliers, a set of universal keys and documents “related to the far left”.
The 28-year-old suspect is currently being questioned by police in the city of Rouen, French media reported.
There is no indication that this man had any contact with those responsible. Co-ordinated arson attack suspected on Friday on the railways ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.
The acts of sabotage paralyzed TGV high-speed trains running to and from Paris and caused serious disruption to travel in France.
On Monday morning, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “a number of profiles of people who may have carried out deliberate and targeted acts of sabotage” had been identified.
He added that the methods used were “traditional” of the far left and said there was “likely a political motive” behind the vandalism.
“The question is whether they were manipulated or did it for their own benefit,” Mr Darmanin said, adding that investigators were making good progress and would find those responsible.
While he did not say the vandals had accomplices within France’s national rail company SNCF, Mr Darmanin noted that the locations of the arson attacks were “extremely specific”.
“It is clear that this attack was very targeted, not random, and it affected three major routes,” he added.
Mr Darmanin also said about 50 people had been arrested ahead of the Games, along with others – estimated at around 150 – who had “wanted to carry out vandalism or radical demonstrations in Paris during the first events of the Games”.
In addition to the damage to the railway, French media reported that fibre optic cables were found cut in six locations across France overnight Sunday into Monday, causing some localised power outages.
It is not yet clear whether there is any link between the sabotage of telecommunications facilities and last week’s rail network disruption, which affected around 250,000 passengers on Friday and hundreds of thousands more at the weekend.
No group has claimed responsibility for either incident. A security source told French media last week that the arson attacks bore all the hallmarks of the far left.
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said on Monday that train services had returned to normal after crews worked around the clock over the weekend to repair the damage.
He added that “significant assets”, including drones and police helicopters, had been deployed to boost security on thousands of kilometres of France’s rail network.
Mr Vergriete also said the vandalism could cause millions of euros in damage.
