A “massive” and “coordinated” sabotage against the railways has shocked France on the morning of the day when the eyes of the whole world are on this country for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Several fires on some main lines from Paris have left 800,000 passengers unable to travel, while intelligence and police services have been called in to find those responsible. The motives and authors are currently unknown.

The feared attack on the Olympic Games did not take place in the form of an attack or via the internet, but hit the heart of the transport network: the high-speed trains that connect the capital to the rest of the territory. The authorities consider the sabotage as “an attempt at destabilization”, in the words of the president of the Paris region, Valérie Pécresse; an act with a clear desire to sow chaos and harm France and the French on a day designated as July 26. The restoration of the lines could take until early next week.

The Acting Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, declared on the social network: “Early this morning, acts of sabotage were carried out in a prepared and coordinated manner at the SNCF facilities.” The SNCF is the public railway company. “The consequences for the rail network,” Attal said, “are enormous and serious.” And he added: “Our information services and our law enforcement forces have been mobilized to track down and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.”

SNCF railway staff attempt to repair one of the sabotaged tracks near Croisille, northern France. Brian Snyder (REUTERS)

The sabotage was not caused by a cyber attack, the newspaper reported The Parisian a spokesman for the National Information Systems Security Agency, charged with protecting the state from such attacks. The president of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, has suggested that fires at railway junctions were deliberately set to maximise damage. “A fire has an impact [así] to two destinations,” he said.

Farandou said the number of people affected would rise to 800,000, on a day when many Parisians were leaving on holiday and other French people were travelling to the capital to attend the Olympic Games. Four high-speed lines are affected: Paris West, Paris North and Paris East. According to The Worlda new sabotage has been disabled on the Paris-Southeast line.

At Montparnasse station, where high-speed trains depart for the Atlantic coast, Bordeaux and Toulouse, thousands of people without the option to travel were waiting for instructions or looking for alternatives, sitting sleepily in the surrounding cafes or on the streets in the rain. “Bad weather and now this,” complained Damien, who had a ticket to the coastal city of La Rochelle. But he took it philosophically: “We won’t be like the typical Frenchman, who complains. You have to take it easy. “Nobody died.”