Sign up for breaking news emails to get free real-time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox.
Sign up for our free email updates
Watch live as President Emmanuel Macron meets with world leaders in Paris for the Olympics on Friday, July 26, just hours after arsonists attacked a French train on the opening day of the games.
France’s high-speed rail network was hit by a series of pre-dawn saboteur attacks, causing chaos on the country’s busiest lines and raising safety concerns ahead of the Olympics.
The coordinated acts of disruption came as France launched a major security operation, mobilising tens of thousands of police and soldiers and mobilising security resources from across the country to guard the capital for the sporting event.
National rail company SNCF said signal boxes were destroyed along lines connecting Paris with cities including Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east.
Another attack on the Paris–Marseille line ended in failure.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Two security sources said the modus operandi of the attack had initially led them to suspect left-wing extremists or environmental activists but that there was no evidence yet.
Asked in a television interview about the possibility that such groups were behind the sabotage, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal refused to speculate.