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France high-speed train network hit by ‘massive attack’ as Olympics gets underway | Latest updates
France train attack updates: France's high-speed TGV network has been a victim of acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern lines.
France train attack updates: Hours ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, the French railway company SNCF on Friday said the high-speed TGV network has been hit by a series of “malicious acts” aimed at paralysing its high speed network.
The SNCF urged all travellers to postpone their journeys. Repairs were underway but traffic would be severely disrupted until at least the end of the weekend. Trains were being sent back to their points of departure.
"Last night, the SNCF was victim of several acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines. Fires were deliberately set to damage our installations," the SNCF said in a statement.
France's prime minister Gabriel Attal said “intelligence services and law enforcement agencies” have been "mobilised" following arson attacks on railway lines. He said officers had been asked to “find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts”. He described the consequences for the rail network as "massive and serious".
The “acts of sabotage” were carried out in a “prepared and coordinated manner”, he said.
Vandals target France's high-speed rail network: Top updates
- According to SNCF, lines in the west, north and east of France were affected.
- Trains to neighbouring Belgium and to London under the English Channel were also affected.
- Government officials denounced the incidents hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which are happening around France, though there was no immediate sign of a link to the Games.
- National Police said authorities are investigating what happened. French media reported a big fire on a busy western route.
- Many French families are also heading on summer vacation Friday.
- The coordinated strikes on the rail network will feed into a sense of apprehension ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony in the heart of Paris later on Friday.
- There was immediate claim of responsibility and no indication of whether the action was politically related.
- France is rolling out an unprecedented peacetime security operation to secure the event, with more than 45,000 police, 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 private security agents deployed. Snipers will be on rooftops and drones keeping watch from the air.
- Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete described the acts as criminal. The Paris Police chief said he was beefing up security yet further at the capital's main stations.
- Sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera condemned the vandalism.
- At the Gare de L'Est, traveller Corinne Lecocq said her train to Strasbourg on the border with Germany had been cancelled. "We'll take the slow line," she said. “I'm on holiday so it's OK, even if it is irritating to be late.”
(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)
