France's high-speed train lines are sabotaged hours before Olympic opening ceremony

Caption

Travelers sit on stairs at the Gare de Montparnasse at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Friday in Paris. Hours away from the opening ceremony of the Olympics, high-speed rail traffic to the French capital was severely disrupted on Friday following what officials described as "criminal actions" and sabotage. / AP

NPR is in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. For the latest from the Opening Ceremony head to our live coverage.

PARIS — Just hours before the Olympic opening ceremony takes place in the French capital, rail networks around the country were brought to a standstill Friday by a series of arson attacks on train lines in what officials called “coordinated acts of malice.”

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the attacks on the infrastructure of France's high-speed rail lines. The disruption has brought chaos to the country’s busiest railway lines and caused delays and cancellations across Paris’ train stations. There are no known reports of injuries.

French railway operator SNCF said it was a “massive attack aimed at paralyzing the network” and confirmed that three high-speed lines servicing the west, north and east of France have been affected, while an attack on a fourth line going south had been foiled. Some 800,000 passengers will be affected, with disruption expected to last throughout the weekend.

Half of the trains carrying Olympic athletes to Paris via one western rail line were halted. Some athletes are expected to miss the opening ceremony.

Early Friday afternoon local time, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the attacks “were carried out on nerve centers of our high-speed rail system,” which he said showed “a good knowledge of the system and where to strike.”

In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 Friday afternoon, France’s transport minister, Patrice Vergriete, confirmed that a number of incendiary devices had been found by authorities investigating the cause of the attacks but did not say who might be behind the attacks. He described it as a “criminal act” and said security forces were on high alert.

French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said it was “completely appalling,” and told local TV, “to target the Games is to target France.”

In Paris’ central Montparnasse Station, one of the worst affected, crowds of passengers built up throughout the morning, as announcements came through urging people to cancel or postpone their journeys if possible.

Virginia Asante, 40, had traveled with her husband and children to France from Ottawa, Canada, for the Games. The family was hoping to catch a train out of the capital, to watch an Olympic soccer match in Nantes, in western France. “We came here and we discovered the trains had been sabotaged. All the rental cars are sold out here. Now we’re just kind of waiting, with our three young children,” she said.

Sophie Boldon, 35, had been waiting for over three hours after her train on the Atlantic line of the high-speed network was canceled.

“In Paris, everything is closed, you can’t get any train at the normal stations,” Boldon said. “Nobody knows where the trains will start again. Nobody knows anything. We’ve been waiting for three hours, we will see if we’ll wait a whole night.”