With the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics just hours away and a busy weekend of summer travel ahead, a “massive attack” on the French high-speed rail system paralyzed train travel across the country.
Reports said the rail network across the country was targeted by what were called “multiple malicious acts” of “coordinated sabotage,” including arson on the morning of 26JUL.
Reuters said the TGV network attacks caused “travel chaos” and exposed security gaps ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony later in the day.
“The coordinated sabotage took place as France mounted a massive security operation involving tens of thousands of police and soldiers to safeguard the capital for the sporting extravaganza, sucking in security resources from across the country,” Reuters said.
According to CNBC, French Railway network SNCF said at least 250,000 passengers would be impacted Friday, with 800,000 expected to be affected over the weekend.
A sweeping number of services had to be cancelled, it said, warning passengers affected to postpone their travel plans and “not to go to the station.”'
Travelmole UK reports that Eurostar passengers were stuck at London St Pancras station because several Paris-bound services were cancelled.
Reports quote Prime Minister Gabriel Attal as saying that French intelligence services and law enforcement agencies are trying to track down suspects. He also said the attacks had “consequences for the rail network are massive and serious.”
According to Reuters, SNCF said vandals had damaged signal boxes along the lines connecting Olympics host city Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled.
CNN said pax milled around outside Paris’ Gare du Nord train station and sat with their luggage on staircases as the disruption laid waste to their travel plans.
Francoise, an 80-year-old from La Rochelle, was trying to get home and back to her nurse after medical treatment in Paris. She told CNN she is preparing to wait another five hours in the forlorn hope of catching a train.
“We didn’t need a day like this,” she said.
