What we know about France’s Olympic rail mayhem after arson attacks
It's fair to say it felt as if France was 'under attack' ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris.
Russian sabotage; France’s rail network paralysed; at least 800,000 passengers affected; Eurostar trains cancelled…
It’s fair to say it felt as if France was ‘under attack’ ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris.
Distracted by Celine Dion’s performance during the Opening Ceremony along the River Seine, grave issues in the hours before may have been overlooked – but there were many.
Multiple arson attacks targeted the ‘nerve centres’ of French railways, affecting lines across the country, including the Eurostar, which runs services to Paris from London St Pancras.
Bomb threats also sent French police racing from one side of the city to the other. This all came 48 hours after a Russian reality TV chef was arrested in Paris over an alleged plot to cause mayhem at the Olympics.
This is everything you need to know about the chaos in Paris in the days ahead of the Games.
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What happened to trains in France?
In a series of pre-dawn attacks across France, the state-owned rail company SNCF became a victim of ‘several acts of malevolence’.
Explosive devices set off fires on signalling infrastructure on three lines going into Paris.
Lines from cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east were hit.
Gare Montparnasse in Paris saw the biggest disruptions, with hundreds of people left stranded there in the hours after.
SNCF warned that delays and cancellations will continue on these routes ‘at least over the weekend’.
Services were gradually returning to normal on Saturday morning after engineers worked overnight to repair signal stations and cables damaged by fire.
Who is responsible?
More than 24 hours later, mystery remains about who was behind the attacks – but a number of security gaps have been exposed in the aftermath.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal stressed that it was too early to speculate about who might be behind them.
‘What we know, what we see, is that this operation was prepared, coordinated, that nerve centres were targeted, which shows a certain knowledge of the network to know where to strike,’ he said.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that an investigation would be overseen by its organised crime office, with the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (SDAT), a branch of the judicial police that typically monitors far-left, far-right and radical environmental groups, coordinating investigations.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said in June that the alliance had seen several examples of ‘sabotage, of arson attempts’ by Russia.
But there is no indication that the Kremlin is actually behind the attack.
Can you get a refund if you were affected?
At least 800,000 people were impacted by the chaos in the last 24 hours, including Eurostar passengers.
SNCF had urged customers not to travel to the station on Friday morning as most trains were either cancelled or heavily delayed.
Meanwhile, Eurostar said it would axe a quarter of all services and asked people to postpone their travel where possible on Friday.
One in four trains on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are cancelled, and those which are actually running face between one and two hour delays.
Those impacted can change their booking to a different date and time, free of charge; cancel their booking for an e-voucher redeemable on any train within the next year; or get a full refund for free.
Eurostar said: ‘Due to coordinated acts of vandalism in France, affecting the high-speed line between Paris and Lille, all high-speed trains going to and coming from Paris are being diverted via the classic line today Friday, July 26.
‘This extends the journey time by around an hour and a half. Several trains have been cancelled.
‘Eurostar’s teams are fully mobilised in stations, in the call centres, and onboard to assist and ensure our passengers are fully informed.
‘Customers are being informed via email, SMS and on Eurostar.com.’
Who is the Russian chef arrested in Paris?
A Russian national with suspected links to espionage networks was arrested in Paris over a plot to ‘destabilise’ the Olympics earlier this week.
The 40-year-old was detained on Sunday after a raid on his apartment. It is being reported that French authorities found documentation linked to an elite special operations unit under the command of Russia’s FSB security service.
A statement from the interior ministry said that the evidence raised ‘fears of his intention to organise events likely to cause destabilisation during the Olympic Games’.
Multiple European intelligence agencies had been monitoring his movements in recent months, leading to the operation.
Gryaznov was unmasked as a former reality TV star who had participated in the Russian version of ‘The Bachelor’.
He had then moved to Paris, where he had been living for the past 14 years, and had trained as a chef at the prestigious culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu.
The chef has more than 11,000 followers on his Instagram account, which is carefully curated with professional photographs of dishes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow had read ‘curious information’ about the arrest, but needed more information from authorities in Paris.
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