A ‘massive arson attack’ on the French railway network caused chaos today at the start of the Olympic Games in Paris.
Just hours before the opening ceremony on the Seine on Friday, fires broke out at key locations, bringing train services to a standstill.
The Gare du Nord, the main Eurostar station in Paris, was hit by the ongoing attacks on the rail network, a spokesman for French railway company SNCF said.
“Many stations are affected, including Gare du Nord, and services across France have been cancelled or delayed,” he said.
Thousands of people from the UK are travelling to Paris by train today for the start of the Olympic Games.
As a result, several services were cancelled, including those intended to bring sports fans to the French capital.
According to Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete, there was a series of “coordinated malicious acts”, pointing to a series of fires.
They focused on the high-speed TGV network, which covers the whole of France and is particularly busy at this time of year.
In addition to the Olympic Games, Vergriete said the “criminal actions will jeopardize the holidays of many French people.”
The first fire was discovered early Friday morning near a railway track in Courtalain, in the Eure-et-Loir department.
It caused a traffic jam on the busy Atlantique high-speed line.
SNCF also spoke of a “malicious act” on the high-speed line between Lille and Paris, in the northern part of Arras.
The TGV Inoui and Ouigo trains were diverted to conventional lines, resulting in cancellations and significantly longer journey times.
There was a huge crowd at major Parisian stations, such as Montparnasse, where all trains to and from nearby cities, such as Tours and Le Mans, were cancelled.
An SNCF spokesman said the railway company had been the victim of “a massive arson attack aimed at paralysing the TGV network”.
He said the disruption would last ‘at least the entire weekend’ and would have a knock-on effect across the network.
There will be a criminal investigation into the attacks, but there is no theory yet about who is behind them.
Olympic organisers have long feared sabotage attacks surrounding the multi-billion dollar Games. A large-scale £350m security operation has been launched in Paris to counter the threats.
The largest peacetime deployment of troops in France’s history includes some 75,000 soldiers, police officers and private security guards.
“We are focused and ready,” said General Lionel Catar, one of the military planners before the spectacular opening.
The priority is to protect the approximately 80,000 participants as they sail down the Seine in dozens of boats, in front of some 350,000 spectators and a television audience of more than a billion people.
Gérald Darmanin of the French Interior Ministry said that “the terrorist threat remains high” and that “a high level of vigilance” remains essential.