'Sabotage' hits French trains hours before Olympics

PARIS, France  — Arson attacks scrambled France's high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of "sabotage" just hours before the Paris Olympics opened.

Friday's attacks were launched as the French capital was under heavy security ahead of the Games opening ceremony, with 300,000 spectators and an audience of VIPs expected at the event.

The fires that affected France's Atlantic, northern and eastern lines led to cancellations and delays at a time of particularly heavy traffic for summer holiday travel.

Around 800,000 passengers are expected to be affected over the weekend as the damage is heavy and labour-intensive to repair.

"Early this morning, coordinated and prepared acts of sabotage were perpetrated against installations of SNCF," the national rail operator, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said.

"There are huge and serious consequences for the rail network," he added, while security services are hunting the culprits.

SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said that the attackers had started fires in "conduits carrying multiple (fibre-optic) cables" that carry "safety information for drivers" or control the motors for points.

"There's a huge number of bundled cables. We have to repair them one by one, it's a manual operation" requiring" hundreds of workers," he added.

Passenger services chief Christophe Fanichet said there were delays of 90 minutes to two hours on services between Paris and France's north and east.

"We ask people please not to come to the station, because if you haven't heard from us, your train won't be running," Fanichet told reporters.

One major branch of the network, the line to France's southeast, was spared.

CEO Farandou said that railway workers doing night maintenance in central France spotted unauthorised people, who then fled when the workers called in police.

Multiple services between Paris and London via northern France were also cancelled, the Eurostar company said, with others suffering delays as they divert onto lines not meant for high-speed trains.

Paris's RATP transport network was also operating under "increased vigilance" following the railway