SNCF reported a “large-scale coordinated massive attack to paralyze” high-speed TGV trains. “We diverted part of the trains (TGV) to regular lines, but we will have to cancel many of them. The situation will last at least the entire weekend, which will be the time necessary for repairs,” the SNCF agency AFP quotes. SNCF released footage of its staff repairing the damaged cables, “replacing and testing one by one”. According to the media, SNCF will file a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator.
The attackers damaged the infrastructure in four carefully selected hubs key to the main lines. In the tunnels, they first cut and then set fire to the cable bundles that control, among other things, the train signaling, SNCF management said at a press conference. One attack, which would have been the fifth, was stopped before it began. During the night, maintenance workers on the track noticed a van and people who were in places where entry is prohibited. The police confiscated their car, but the crew escaped.
SNCF systems detected the sabotage at 4:00 a.m. and railway workers, police and technicians immediately went to the site and began transporting the material needed for the repairs there as well, said SNCF chief Jean-Pierre Farandou. He stressed that the safety of the transport was never compromised. The sabotage will affect at least 800,000 passengers, including 250,000 in the Île-de-France region.
The National Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) took over the investigation. Offenders for damage to property important for the operation of the state, damage to automated data processing systems and conspiracy to commit these criminal offenses acts punishable by up to 20 years behind bars and a fine of 150,000 euros (3.8 million crowns), Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced.
The situation was most tense at the Montparnasse station, where the TGV high-speed trains depart. The station announced around 11:00 a.m. that no trains would leave the station until at least 1:00 p.m. The railway has promised to reimburse 100 percent of the ticket price to all passengers who miss their connections. The head of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, asked passengers to postpone their journeys if possible and not go to the station. BFM TV reported train delays of more than two hours and an “exodus to the bus station”. where people are looking for alternative solutions to their journeys. Flixbus in France reports an increase in the number of tickets sold by 15 percent.
The northern Paris-Lille line was completely out of service, traffic to the east, southeast and west of Paris was also severely disrupted. Around 2:00 p.m., part of the trains started moving, repairs are continuing. The western line was the most damaged, with around 50 services canceled since morning; in the afternoon, about every third train should be running. To the north, part of the trains are still not running, other connections are about an hour late. The eastern direction has been fully restored, the delay is 90 minutes, said Franck Debourdieu for the management of TGV Atlantique.
The attacks on the French railway also affected trains from Paris to London, which usually travel via Lille and then through the Channel Tunnel. Due to the closure to Lille, trains to Britain are delayed by around an hour and a half, between today and Sunday around 25 percent of services will be canceled, Eurostar said. The same line carries passengers to Brussels, this connection is also only partially operational at the moment. The German carrier Deutsche Bahn also informed about the delayed and canceled trains on the route to Germany in connection with the sabotage. Trains to Switzerland, on the other hand, run without problems, SBB said.
The train outage and the resumption of service have already earned a cartoon joke from the well-known French cartoonist Plant. He captured the railwaymen with cables in their hands on the Olympic podium and credited them with the “first gold medals” of the games for saving their opening ceremony. The media also wrote about a couple who missed a friend’s wedding due to non-running trains or a young journalist who couldn’t make it in time for the games to start.
Prime Minister: Planned and coordinated sabotage
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete has already condemned the attacks and reminded that the will disrupt the holidays of many French people. He thanked the railway workers for their special commitment and stated that everything so far points to a criminal act.
According to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, the infrastructure of the French railway carrier SNCF se became the target of planned and coordinated sabotage. According to him, the attacks were aimed at three main routes to Paris and their goal was “block the high-speed rail network”.
Chaos at Paris stations after a series of arson attacks (26/07/2024) | ČTK / AP / Mark Baker
Attal assured that French intelligence services and investigators are working to find and punish the perpetrators. He thanked the firefighters who intervened in the affected areas, as well as the SNCF employees working to restore the railway network.
Passengers were evacuated at the airport
At noon, France began to deal with another security incident. On the French-Swiss border suspended operations at Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg International Airport. For safety reasons, they evacuated all passengers. According to the station BFM TV, the reason for the evacuation of the terminal is a reported bomb.
“For security reasons, the terminal had to be evacuated and is currently closed,” the airport management said, promising more information later.
The airport between Mulhouse and Basel belongs to more important regional air ports in France, over eight million passengers pass through it annually. It is the third largest airport in Switzerland after Zurich and Geneva.
The Summer Olympics will officially open in Paris tonight. The ceremony on the Seine is accompanied by considerable security measures, including a no-fly zone within a radius of 150 kilometers from the metropolis.