As the French rail company SNCF informed the media, during Thursday night, July 25, unknown persons carried out arson attacks on several facilities of the French high-speed train network, disrupting express train services on the Atlantic, northern and eastern axes, as well as the route under the Channel between France and the United Kingdom. About 800,000 passengers were affected—families at the start of their summer vacations, as well as visitors to the Olympics in Paris.
According to France’s acting Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete, the arsonists were targeting cables that are important for controlling train traffic. This was reported by the daily newspaper Le Figaro. The affected cables control safety equipment such as signals and communications, and the saboteurs apparently were well-informed about the fact that concentrating the attacks on only a handful of locations would paralyze all of the rail grid.
According to the SNCF, there were three arson attacks, near Pagny-sur-Moselle in the east of France, near Courtalain in the southwest of Paris and in the Arras area in the north.
