France’s rail network was the target of a major act of sabotage Friday, hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games bringing services on several high-speed rail lines to a halt in disruptions that are expected to last for days.
Officials said fires were set at around 4 a.m. local time at three sites around the country’s rail network in a coordinated and precisely targeted attack. The damage is disrupting services on the high-speed lines connecting to Paris from the north, southwest and east. The saboteurs cut and then burned signaling cables, requiring laborious repairs that will take days, officials said.
One team of saboteurs targeted a line that serves southeast France but was foiled by rail authorities, officials said.
“What we know is that this operation was prepared, coordinated. That nerve centers were targeted—something that shows a level of knowledge of the network to know how to strike,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
The sabotage marks a stunning breach of the sweeping security dragnet that France erected to shield the games from myriad threats, ranging from Islamist terrorist groups to sabotage by far-left groups or adversaries such as Russia or Iran.
Western officials and security experts have worried the Kremlin would attempt to disrupt the Games to embarrass Macron and the French government. French authorities said Tuesday they arrested and charged a 40-year-old Russian man with planning an operation to sow disorder at the Olympics. Officials suspect it was the latest in a series of operations launched by Moscow to foment unrest in France.
One French security official said authorities were also examining the possibility that far-left activists were behind the attack. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it opened an investigation on Friday.
The sabotage risks preventing thousands of people from attending the opening ceremony, which is set to start at 1:30 p.m. ET. A parade of boats carrying athletes from more than 190 nations will sail down the Seine, through the heart of Paris.
French authorities were expecting more than 300,000 people for the event, in what would be the biggest attendance at an opening ceremony in Olympics history.
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