France suspects that members of far-left groups were responsible for sabotaging the high-speed rail network just before the Olympic Games began, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced on Monday.
The saboteurs targeted signal substations and cables at critical points on the network, causing major travel disruptions just hours before the opening ceremony in Paris.
“We have identified several individuals with profiles that match far-left groups,” stated Mr. Darmanin during an interview with France 2 TV, noting that the sabotage resembled tactics used by such groups.
The Paris prosecutors office is leading the investigation, with no arrests made at the time of this statement.
As a result of the vandalism, isolated communication outages affected mobile, fixed phone, and internet services on Monday, as reported by junior minister for digital matters Marina Ferrari.
While France has mostly been targeted by Islamist terrorists in recent years, security services are increasingly concerned about far-left and anarchist groups that oppose the state and capitalism.
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The former head of France’s domestic intelligence agency, Nicolas Lerner, revealed in an interview last year that President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform in 2023 had attracted new members to far-left groups, which have also incorporated environmental issues into their agendas.
Lerner noted that far-left movements have been involved in violent actions such as arson campaigns and property destruction in recent years.
According to a 2023 report by Europol on terrorism trends, left-wing and anarchist groups typically target critical infrastructure, government institutions, and private companies using arson and explosive devices as their primary methods.
Train services in France resumed early Monday after repair teams worked tirelessly over the weekend to fix the damage, as confirmed by Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete on RTL radio.
Approximately 800,000 individuals experienced travel disruptions, and the state-owned rail operator SNCF incurred substantial costs as a result of the sabotage.
