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 "People wait at Gare de Lille-Flandres train station after major disruption on France’s high-speed train network | PHOTO: REUTERS")
People wait at Gare de Lille-Flandres train station after major disruption on France’s high-speed train network | PHOTO: REUTERS
Trains to and from Paris, including the international Eurostar service, were hit by what authorities called a “massive attack aimed at paralyzing the network” of France’s super-fast trains just hours ahead of the inauguration ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the opening ceremony will go on as planned.
“Coordinated malicious acts targeted several TGV lines last night and will seriously disrupt traffic until this weekend,” French Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete wrote in a post on the X social network.
Fires were set off at three critical rail-line nodes, with people seen fleeing the sites in vans, Jean-Pierre Farandou, the head of the national rail company SNCF, said on BFM TV. The sites were chosen to have heavy consequences on the traffic, he said. The company will have to repair its network cable-by-cable, he said, adding that many trains will have to be canceled. About 800,000 passengers will be affected.
SNCF couldn’t immediately say if this was the biggest disruption the train operator had ever faced, although it wasn’t able to come up with an incident that had affected more travelers over a weekend.
“It’s absolutely appalling,” French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said on BFM TV. “Acting against the Games is acting against France, it’s acting against your own camp, your own country. They are not the Games of a government, they’re the Games of a nation.”
There have been no official statements over who might be behind the attacks. SNCF doesn’t know who the perpetrators are, said Franck Dubourdieu, head of the company’s TGV Atlantique routes. Meanwhile, Paris prosecutors said in a statement that they are investigating the matter.
Dubourdieu said SNCF is using 50 drones as part of its process to check specific areas along the 30,000-kilometer (18,6410-mile) rail network.
“It’s difficult to accept because obviously we’ve been working for months to make sure that everything was going to happen properly and, and today, it’s hard to accept.” he told reporters in front of the Montparnasse train station.
Over the last few weeks, French government officials have evoked the possibility of the far left or Russia trying to sabotage the Games. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL radio on Friday that four attack plans targeting the Olympics had been foiled in the past few weeks by his services.
The disruptions come amid heightened security across Paris, with some 45,000 police and military officials on patrol and barriers set up around the Seine ahead of an opening ceremony that will feature boats sailing down the river, the first of its kind. In preparation, large sections of the city have been cordoned off, with Olympic sites, train stations, tourist landmarks guarded by gun-toting officers, including counter-terrorism units and the military.
Eurostar said its services to London and Brussels from Paris were affected, and several trains have been canceled or delayed. It said high-speed trains going to and from Paris will be diverted, extending the journey time by around an hour and a half. At Gare du Nord, Paris’s Eurostar train station, a long line of people waited to reschedule their trips.
Nabeel, a 24-year-old trainee analyst who lives and works in London but had been visiting his family in the Paris region, said he was able to switch to a slightly later train with no problem. He said he was told his trip would take longer than usual.
“In hindsight, I should have chosen another day,” he said, declining to provide his full name for privacy reasons.
Meanwhile, chaos reigned at the key Paris rail hub of Montparnasse, with public address announcements reeling off a series of canceled trains.
“I’ve been here for three hours and I’m going home now,” said Julien Mercier, 29, who was headed to Morlaix in Brittany for a three-day weekend with his parents. Carrying his bicycle in a carry-bag and a backpack, he said he’d try to reschedule for later in the summer. “It is a bit worrying, that they were able to coordinate this, do it today with the Olympics opening and all the security.”
SNCF said that following the “malicious acts” fast-train services between Paris and several cities had been suspended and that severe delays were expected across its network.
“Teams are already on site to carry out the diagnosis and begin repairs,” it said in a statement.
Transport Minister Vergriete said on TF1 television that traffic is starting to resume.
“We should have a third of trains back this afternoon,” he said.
He added that there was no proof the attacks targeted the opening ceremony, but that it had mainly affected the departure of hundreds of thousands of people going on vacation this weekend.
SNCF’s Farandou said the arson acts were timed for the “day of big departures,” when a large number of French leave for their summer holidays.
“It’s the French that were attacked,” Farandou said.
First Published: Jul 26 2024 | 10:23 PM IS
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