France's rail network struck with arson attacks impacting a million traveling to Olympic games

Vandals struck France’s rail network Friday morning in a series of coordinated arson attacks, impacting an estimated million people who are traveling to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Reports indicate that railway “strategic points” across the western European country were shrouded in flames only a few hours before the Olympic Opening Ceremony was scheduled to start in Paris off the Seine River.

Olympic athletes and fans affected

About a million travelers were impacted by the vandal attacks, which led to train cancellations. Some of the cancellations even affected Olympic athletes including two German showjumpers who were scheduled to participate in the opening ceremony, but instead missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

Even trains that were not directly affected by the vandalism acts were ultimately impacted out of precautionary measures. Two trains transporting Olympic athletes to Paris were halted hours before the opening ceremony, according to a statement posted on the X social media platform by the SNCF French railway system.

“Due to coordinated acts of malice in France, affecting several high speed lines, several high speed trains are being diverted or cancelled. Our teams are fully mobilized in stations, in the call centers, and onboard to ensure that all passengers are informed and can reach their destination,” the post reads.

Franck Dubourdieu, who runs the Atlantique line, said he could not specify which athletes were impacted and who would be absent for the ceremony, but hoped it would not significantly affect the event.

Some athletes told the press they gave up because they ran out of time.

“There was no longer a chance of making it on time,” rider Philipp Weishaupt, who was travelling with teammate Christian Kukuk, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur German news agency.

Gare du Nord, where the high speed Eurostar Chunnel train stops in Paris, was also impacted by the railway attacks, according to SNCF, which said travelers in London St. Pancras were advised to cancel their trips.

Eurostar customers at London, which travels directly to Paris, were reportedly told to cancel their trips where possible while the situation resolves itself. Some Team GB members were reportedly affected by the Eurostar cancellations.

French government lashes out against “criminal actions”

French government officials lashed out against the attacks, calling the vandalism “criminal actions” while law enforcement agents opened a nationwide criminal investigation. Prosecutors have said the vandalistic crimes could result in prison sentences for as much as 20 years.  

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that even the country’s intelligence services were deployed to hunt the vandals.

“What we know is that this operation was prepared, coordinated. That nerve centers were targeted—something that shows a level of knowledge of the network to know how to strike,” he said.

The 35-year old parliamentarian leader said he believed the arsonists had “a clear objective: blocking the high-speed train network.”

Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of SNCF said the event was “a premeditated, calculated, coordinated attack” that revealed “a desire to seriously harm” innocent French civilians.

Moscow under suspicion

French authorities have also been worried about a possible sabotage attack from Russia. The International Olympic Committee banned Russian athletes from competing under the Russian flag because of the Kremlin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

As a result, there are 15 Russians competing this year as neutral athletes. All of them however were screened for political views to demonstrate they opposed the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Those active ties to the Russian military were also prohibited from participating.

German authorities believe Moscow was responsible for a similar act in Germany in October 2022, when vandals attacked communications cables 200 miles apart. The attack halted all train traffic in northern Germany.

“Tensions between France and Russia have surged over the past year as President Emmanuel Macron emerged as one of the West’s leading hawks against Moscow,” according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal. “The French leader has agreed to allow Kyiv to strike targets inside Russian territory with French-supplied cruise missiles and pushed Western nations to station troops inside Ukraine to train Kyiv’s forces.”

As a result, the Journal reported that the West has had increasing concerns Moscow would try to disrupt the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as a means of hurting the political standing of President Emmanuel Macron.

In another strange twist, French authorities said Tuesday they charged a 40-year-old Russian man with Olympics disruption plans. Law enforcement agents suspect the man may have been one stage of a larger operation deployed by the Kremlin to create chaos.

Some travelers taking local trains

French transportation minister Patrice Vergriete said the “criminal actions will compromise the holiday departures of many French people.”

“The places were especially chosen to have the most serious impact, since each fire cut off two lines,” he explained, a possible reference to the attacks on the Est and Nord high-speed lines.

Shortly after 10:20 a.m. EST on Friday, CNN reported that CGT rail union leader Axel Persson opined the vandals much have had “precise information” about how the train network worked.

While some speculated the vandals could be tied to far left radical activists, Persson was quick to say that industrial espionage was also a possible explanation.

The union leader also said that other railway attacks on the southeast line were prevented as a result of workers coordinating with law enforcement. 

Persson said some Olympics travelers can still use local train lines, which he speculated would slow traffic but get people to Paris.

“France is disrupted but not paralyzed,” he said.

Other trains from Belgium were also affected according to European news reports.