Who was behind the arson attacks on railways before the Olympics?
Olympic games. French and allied intelligence officers have worked around the clock to watch for possible attacks. On July 21st French authorities arrested a Russian chef in Paris with ties to Russian intelligence services on suspicion of seeking to cause “large-scale…destabilisation" of the games.
Overnight on July 26th destabilisation came regardless. A series of apparent arson attacks on three of the main high-speed rail routes to Paris brought serious disruption to trains on the eve of the games’ opening ceremony. The perpetrator is unknown.
SNCF, France’s national rail company, said that a series of fires had amounted to a “massive attack aimed at paralysing the network". Images published by local authorities showed fire damage to cables running alongside the track. The cables were burnt and then cut, according to Matthieu Chabanel, the chairman and CEO of SNCF.
The sabotage appeared designed to cause maximum damage by targeting signalling boxes operating major high-speed lines: at Courtalain, which sits on the Atlantic line, from Paris to the coast; Croisilles, on the line from Paris to Belgium; and Pagny-sur-Moselle, on the Paris-Strasbourg line. A fourth attack on the Paris-Marseille line was interrupted, with the attackers fleeing. The disruption has been heavy, affecting around 800,000 passengers.
French broadcasters showed scenes of railway stations packed with stranded passengers, ahead of one of the busiest summer-holiday travel weekends. A quarter of the trains between Paris and London were cancelled until Sunday. Only one train in three on the Atlantic line was expected to run on the afternoon of July 26th, said Patrice Vergriete, France’s transport minister.
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