- Activist reportedly arrested on Sunday at railway site following Friday’s attacks
Authorities said fibre optic networks had been ‘sabotaged’, causing telecommunications networks to fail across France. They condemned the ‘cowardly and irresponsible’ attacks.
The cause is coordinated arson attacks that paralyzed high-speed rail services in the country on Friday, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, disrupting travel for hundreds of thousands of people.
A far-left activist was arrested at a railway station yesterday, police said today. Detectives are investigating whether the man belongs to an “anti-Olympic” movement.
The man was arrested on Sunday in Oissel in northern France and had access keys to SNCF technical rooms, tools and literature linked to far-left parties, a source said.
The latest alleged cases of vandalism involved fibre optic cables in six French regions, including the Paris area, where the Games are largely being held.
Pedestrians walk past a store of French telecommunications and mobile network company SFR (file image)
Charred cables near a railway line in Courtalain after reports of ‘arson’ on railway infrastructure on Friday
The network suffered isolated outages after vandalism overnight, affecting both fixed and mobile services, Marina Ferrari, France’s secretary of state for digital affairs, said on X.
“I strongly condemn these cowardly and irresponsible acts,” she said, adding that teams are working to fully restore telecommunications operations.
According to Le Parisien, cables were cut in electrical cabinets belonging to telephone companies SFR, Bouygues and Free. Users of other networks also suffered damage.
According to the report, infrastructure in southern France, the Meuse region near Luxembourg and the Oise area near Paris was destroyed.
The French capital is said not to have been affected by the attacks so far.
No claim of responsibility has yet been made and the number of people affected is not yet known.
SNCF employees and French gendarmes inspect the scene of a suspected attack on the high-speed rail network in Croiselles, northern France on July 26, 2024
On Friday, a relay antenna was destroyed, leaving 2,000 households in Haute-Garonne, on the outskirts of Toulouse, without internet access. BFMTV defeated.
A group called ‘No JO’ (No Olympics) claimed responsibility for the fire, with one of their tags reportedly found at the scene.
SFR and Bouygues did not immediately respond to requests for comment.