French agencies believe the arson attack to be an attempted ‘sabotage’ but have so far ruled out any direct connection with the conduct Olympic games
SNCF employees and French gendarmes inspect the scene of a suspected attack on the high speed railway network at Croiselles, northern France on July 26, 2024. French security forces are hunting people behind arson attacks that hobbled the country’s high-speed rail network hours before the Olympic Games opening ceremony, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said. (Photo by Denis CHARLET / AFP)
Hours before the start of Paris Olympics 2024, France’s high speed railway network was targeted in an arson attack on Friday, which the officials termed as premeditated acts of “sabotage”.
Fires that engulfed the railways Atlantic, northern and eastern lines led to mass train cancellations and delays affecting almost 80,000 passengers when the country sees high passenger traffic for summer holidays.
EuroAirport, an airport located on the Franco-Swiss border reopened and gradually restarted flight operations. The airport was temporarily evacuated following the alleged arson attack. Another airport at Basel-Mulhouse was also closed and passengers were evacuated for what the officials termed as “safety reasons”.
SNCF, the national rail operator, chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou told AFP that the attackers had started fires in “conduits carrying multiple fibre optic cables that carry safety information for drivers. “There’s a huge number of bundled cables. We have to repair them one by one, it’s a manual operation” requiring” hundreds of workers,” he added.
