Saboteurs attack French railways hours before Paris Olympics opening ceremony
- Government officials denounce coordinated sabotage effort that disrupted travel for thousands of passengers
Saboteurs attacked France’s TGV high-speed train network in coordinated actions that caused chaos on the country’s busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
The action took place despite a massive security operation involving tens of thousands of troop and police to guard against any threat to the global sporting extravaganza.
The state-owned railway operator said arsonists had damaged signal boxes along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled. Hundreds of thousands of people were left stranded.
The SNCF urged all travellers to postpone their journeys. Repairs were under way but traffic would be severely disrupted until at least the end of the weekend. Trains were being sent back to their points of departure.
