July 29, 2024 – 11:49 AM
Soldiers wait outside the Montparnasse train station in Paris on July 26, after the sabotage attack on the TGV network – Photo: Claire Serie / Hans Lucas / AFP
French authorities have seized a cutting tool, keys to open the technical building of the French state railway company SNCF and other tools from a man arrested near Rouen on Sunday, suspected of being linked to the vandalism that brought the country's high-speed rail network to a standstill on Friday, the opening day of the Olympic Games. Le Monde.
Report on the circumstances of the case This is what was stated in the France 24 article. We can read, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, that the man arrested on Sunday is a far-left activist. He added that several possible participants had been identified in parallel with the action, and they now want to know whether the traffic chaos caused by arson was ordered by the suspected perpetrators. The minister described the case as a typical far-left action, and in another interview he also spoke of the arrest of 45 members of the Extinction Rebellion movement.
Following the incident, anonymous individuals sent a statement to several French media outlets in which they admitted responsibility for the crime, while criticizing the Olympic Games, which they described as a celebration of nationalism. Authorities are looking into whether the individuals who made the statement were actually linked to the perpetrators of the arson attack that caused a serious collapse of a high-speed train, causing millions of euros in damage, destroying trains for some 700,000 people. They were delayed and another 100,000 were cancelled before service was fully restored on Sunday.
This was not the end of the series of acts of sabotage. AP News Agency Report From Sunday to Monday morning, six French regions experienced disruptions in the operation of the telecommunications and optical networks, as well as the mobile phone network, possibly also due to deliberate sabotage. The Olympic organizers have not yet issued a statement on whether the incident affects the sporting event, but the network problems also extend to the Marseille region, where football matches and sailing races are also held as part of the Olympic programme.
