French rail lines disrupted by ‘coordinated sabotage’ ahead of Paris Olympics opening ceremony
Hours before today’s Olympic opening ceremony, France’s national train service reported being “targeted by several ‘malicious acts’ that disrupted its high-speed lines,” impacting up to 800,000 passengers. Fires, believed to be started by arsonists, “appeared on train tracks outside Paris,” causing a “knock-on impact on services at some of the capital city’s main train stations.” There were also “disruptions to Eurostar trains departing to London.” The USOPC stated that “no American athletes were affected by the disruptions as they were traveling on buses” (USA TODAY, 7/26).
France’s Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, strongly condemned the actions, telling French television, “We will assess the impacts for today, for the travelers, for the athletes for this weekend, the smooth travel of all the delegations.” She added that she “believed the attacks were Olympics-related.”
Many of the 320,000 spectators arriving for the opening ceremony “will face travel chaos” (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/26).
Separately, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced today that “four attack plans targeting the Olympics had been foiled in the past few weeks by his services” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 7/26).
