Last opening ceremony of the Olympics: French railway network sabotaged hours before the start of the Paris Games

PARIS– from France high speed rail network was hit on Friday by widespread and “criminal” acts of vandalism, including arson attacks, paralyzing travel from across the rest of France and Europe to Paris, just hours before the grand opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Outgoing French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the sabotage and arson that hit key parts of the French rail network on the eve of the Olympic Games had “a clear objective: to block the high-speed rail network.”

He said the vandals strategically targeted the main routes north, east and west towards Paris, hours before the city was due to host the Olympics opening ceremony.

Speaking to reporters, Attal said there would be “enormous consequences”, with “hundreds of thousands” of people arrested while trying to visit Paris for the Games or holidays.

Eurostar says one in four trains over the weekend will be cancelled.

The rail network said all high-speed trains are being diverted, adding 90 minutes to each journey.

“Eurostar expects this situation to last until Monday morning,” it said in a statement.

BFM television footage showed more than a dozen workers from the SNCF railway company in orange uniforms examining damage to cut and burned cables along train tracks in Croisilles, a village in northern France where one of the sabotage incidents occurred.

Half a dozen police officers, some carrying yellow markers, were at the crime scene.

Germany’s national rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, said there had been train cancellations and delays between France and Germany as a result of the damage.

In Berlin, government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said that “the German government condemns these acts in the strongest terms.”

Eurostar passengers departing London appeared at ease with delays on the French rail network.

Kate Fisher, 37, a teacher from Louisiana, was traveling with five friends hoping to get to Paris to soak up the atmosphere.

“We knew this was the worst time to go to Paris because of the Olympics, so we were prepared for it to take longer,” she said.

In Brussels, Eurostar said all high-speed trains going to and from Paris are being diverted via the standard line.

“This extends travel time by approximately an hour and a half,” the company said.

When a train to Paris was announced, many travelers whose journey had been canceled or delayed chose to board without a valid ticket. The train controller warned them that they would have to stay at the bar for the entire journey. Once inside, the train barista handed out free bottles of water.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation, claiming to have “jurisdiction over crimes involving the deterioration of property that threaten the fundamental interests of the nation.”

This crime, he added, carries a potential penalty of 15 years in prison and fines of 225 thousand euros.

Furthermore, he stated that crimes involving “degradation and attempted degradation by dangerous means in an organized group” could carry a prison sentence of 20 years and fines of 150,000 euros.

Two German showjumpers were on a train bound for Paris to take part in the opening ceremony, but had to turn back in Belgium due to long delays. They will now miss the ceremony, German news agency DPA reported.

“It’s a shame, but we would have arrived too late,” driver Philipp Weishaupt, who was traveling with teammate Christian Kukuk, told dpa. “There was no longer any chance of arriving in time.”

Montparnasse 2 station was packed with passengers affected by delayed or canceled trains, including some who spent hours stranded on the tracks because of the disruptions.

Maiwenn Labbé-Sorin said she waited hours on the train before returning to Paris. There was no word on when she would be able to continue her trip.

“We spent two hours without water, without bathrooms, without electricity,” she said. “Then we could go out to the track for a bit and then the train would come back. Now I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”

Travelers at Gare du Nord railway station looked at boarding boards for Eurostar trains to London, showing delays of up to an hour and a half.

“It’s a great way to start the Olympics,” said Sarah Moseley, 42, upon learning her train to London was an hour late.

“They should have more information for tourists, especially if it is a malicious attack,” said Corey Grainger, a 37-year-old Australian sales manager on his way to London, as he rested on his two suitcases in the middle of the station.

In Bordeaux, in southwestern France, those who couldn’t find a seat at Gare de Bordeaux Saint-Jean sat on luggage and clothes on the floor and stared at their phones, while others huddled and slept on benches.

“Our intelligence services and our law enforcement agencies are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” said French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in a post on X.

Attal characterized them as “acts of sabotage” that were “prepared and coordinated.”

Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of railway company SNCF, told French television network BFMTV that the acts demonstrated “a desire to seriously harm” the French and that their nature implied “a premeditated, calculated and coordinated attack”.

Farandou said the targeted locations were railway crossings.

“For one fire, two destinations were reached,” he told BFMTV.

Passengers at London’s St. Pancras station have been warned to expect delays of around an hour on their Eurostar journeys. Announcements in the departure lounge of the international terminal informed travelers heading to Paris that there was a problem with the air power supply.

French railway company SNCF said it did not know when traffic would resume and feared disruptions would continue “at least throughout the weekend”. SNCF teams “were already on site to carry out diagnoses and begin repairs”, but the “situation is expected to last at least the entire weekend while repairs are carried out”, said the operator. The SNCF advised “all passengers to postpone their journey and not go to the station”, specifying in its press release that all tickets can be exchanged and refunded.

Valerie Pecresse, president of the regional council for the greater Paris region, said “250,000 travelers will be affected today across all these lines.” Replacement plans were underway, but Pecresse advised travelers “not to go to the stations.”

As Paris authorities prepared for a parade along the River Seine amid heightened security, three fires were reported near the tracks of the Atlantique, Nord and Est high-speed lines. The disruptions particularly affected the main Montparnasse station in Paris. Videos posted on social media showed the station hall saturated with travelers.

The incidents paralyzed several high-speed lines connecting Paris to the rest of France and neighboring countries, according to Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete.

Speaking to BFM television, Vergriete described the people who fled the scene of the fires and the discovery of incendiary devices at the scene. “Everything indicates that these are arson,” he said.

Travel to and from London, under the English Channel, to neighboring Belgium and across western, northern and eastern France were affected by what French national rail company SNCF called a series of coordinated incidents overnight.

Government officials denounced the acts, although they said there was no immediate sign of a direct link to the Olympics. The National Police said authorities were investigating the incidents. French media reported a major fire on a busy western route.

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