Just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, France was hit by an act of sabotage that paralyzed its high-speed train network and left thousands of passengers stranded at stations. The government has not yet said who was behind the arson attacks, but an investigation is underway.
What do we know about the attacks?
Vandals cut power cables at at least three key points and set fire to vital equipment, halting high-speed train services linking Paris with the north, east, south and west.
Jean-Pierre Farandou, chief executive of state-run train operator SNCF, said there was no quick fix available other than repairing the cables manually, one by one. The attackers appeared to have deliberately targeted multiple line junctions to ensure they caused major damage to the network, suggesting a certain level of sophistication and knowledge.
A fourth attempted sabotage in southern France was thwarted when maintenance crews startled the attackers at around 4am, causing them to flee in a truck. Police are trying to track them down.
The Paris organized crime unit is leading the investigation. No arrests have been made and anti-terrorism prosecutors have not been called in. SNCF expects the travel plans of at least 800,000 people to be disrupted; normal service may not resume until Monday.
What preparations has the French government made before the Olympics?
Police and intelligence agencies are monitoring threats that could disrupt the Games, including Islamist militants, state actors — notably Russia — and political activists such as far-left, environmental or far-right groups, according to officials.
A massive 45,000-strong police force has been deployed in Paris. To protect the 10,500 athletes and 100 heads of state expected to attend the opening ceremony, a security perimeter on the Seine River has been sealed off, an anti-drone system has been deployed and a no-fly zone has been established.
In recent weeks, police and intelligence agencies have been checking people on so-called File S watch list, people suspected of having links to Islamist militants or militant groups. There are 22,000 people on that watch list, with 6,000 considered active and at higher risk.
Officials also conducted background checks on nearly 1 million people before granting permits to private security forces, volunteers and journalists, rejecting 5,000 of them for posing a risk.
French police have refused requests from some Russian citizens for identification documents and QR codes needed to move around the city, a Western official said.
Ahead of the Olympics, the official also said 155 people were subject to administrative orders issued by a judge, requiring them to stay close to home and report to local police multiple times a day.
“The main threat is from Islamist terrorism, which affects many countries and France in particular, with the risk of organized attacks directed from abroad and lone wolves at home acting alone,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Tuesday. “There are other types of threats: the far left or the far right, and protest movements.”
Is Russia involved?
French officials have previously warned of a high risk of Russian attempts to disrupt the Olympics. A large group of technology experts have been monitoring the threat of Russian hackers targeting security infrastructure or hospitals.
Russian athletes are banned from competing under the country’s flag because of doping violations and Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine means “the Russians now have 10 times more reason to attack the Olympics,” a US official said. told the Financial Times last week.
In recent weeks, French police have also arrested several people with links to Russia suspected of planning sabotage or espionage. On Tuesday, a Russian citizen was arrested in Paris after police found evidence that he may have intended to target the Olympics. Moscow said it had no information about the individual arrested.
“We strongly suspect that he planned to carry out a destabilizing activity… this activity could take various forms, it could be cyberattacks requiring collusion or disinformation campaigns,” Interior Minister Darmanin said on Wednesday.
He said misleading social media videos suggesting terrorist threats falsely linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas had been traced to pro-Russian groups.
This spring, intelligence agencies across Nato shared information about Russia’s intentions to step up violent acts against European countries. A senior European intelligence official said this month that the UEFA championship in Germany and the Olympic Games had been specifically targeted.
Thanks to a Europe-wide crackdown on Russian spy networks, the Kremlin has turned to proxy agents, often criminal gangs and sometimes political activists, to carry out sophisticated sabotage efforts ranging from cyberattacks and bomb plots to inciting acts of graffiti and arson.
Railways have been targeted. The Czech Republic said in April that intelligence indicated that Russia had carried out “thousands” of sabotage attempts or plans to sabotage European railways.
Are there any other potential culprits?
France has a highly dynamic political culture, where protests and militant action are not uncommon. However, any attempt to link specific groups to Friday’s train sabotage remains speculative.
Several left-wing and environmental groups have spoken out against the Games. Protesters gathered at Place de la République in Paris on Thursday night to denounce the environmental and social consequences of hosting the games. Protests also took place in Marseille when the Olympic flame arrived there two months ago. However, the actions have been largely peaceful.
Environmentalists have also protested against the construction of large reservoirs for agricultural purposes. Radical ecology group Soul of the EarthEarth Uprisings, or Earth Uprisings, was the main organizer of a major protest in Sainte-Soline in central France last year that turned violent when thousands of activists clashed with police. The group has also been involved in blockades at ports and industrial zones.
Darmanin attempted to ban the group, but the court declared the move invalid.
There is some precedent in France for political activists targeting rail infrastructure. In 2008, a radical liberal group based in the small town of Tarnac was arrested on suspicion of placing hooks on the tracks to derail trains. The proceedings dragged on for more than a decade and were marred by allegations of procedural irregularities and political interference; the case was dropped in 2018.
How are the Olympics affected?
Ahead of the opening ceremony on the Seine River on Friday evening, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo told reporters the vandalism would “not affect tonight’s ceremony because it does not affect traffic in the area”.
The US and British teams said all their athletes were in Paris and fully present so they would not miss the ceremony.
However, the rail closure could affect some key Olympic events, with the first men’s and women’s basketball games set to begin on Saturday in Lille, about two and a half hours north of Paris.
The US team told the FT that its basketball team was in Paris for the opening ceremony, but was expected to travel by train to Lille. The team had secured backup transportation and buses in case they were needed, a spokesperson said.
Paris 2024 organisers cancelled a planned press conference on Friday morning with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, but he later told reporters he had “full confidence in the French authorities”.
Much of central Paris along the Seine River was completely closed to traffic as planned, with some metro stations shutting down on the Friday before the festival. Police lined the streets at many intersections to check the necessary paperwork of pedestrians and those with tickets to the opening ceremony who wanted to pass through security areas.
Cartography by Jana Tauschinski and Aditi Bhandari
