France - Infrastructure on TGV high speed railway lines vandalized, multiple locations - 26 Jul 2024

[ifindedout]

Sabotage on the rails jeopardises big day for Paris

There is tight security for the opening ceremony, but saboteurs struck rail lines miles outside the city.

www.bbc.com

France's state-owned rail company SNCF says the saboteurs either vandalised or tried to vandalise five signal boxes and electricity installations between 01:00 and 05:30 on Friday.

One site was at Courtalain, east of Le Mans and 150km to the south-west of Paris. The local community's social media page posted a picture of burnt-out cables in a shallow gulley, with its protective SNCF paving stones discarded.

SNCF spoke of a "massive, large-scale attack aimed at paralysing" its services, involving arson and theft targeting cabling, not just at Courtalain but at Pagny-sur-Moselle, a village outside the eastern city of Metz and Croisilles, not far from the northern city of Arras.

[...]

Friday 26 July marks the start of the grand départ or big getaway for many French holidaymakers heading out of the cities. It is also the day of the showpiece opening ceremony that the Paris Olympics organisers have worked on for years.

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[PrairieWind]

It doesn't seem that this story is getting the attention it probably should. I'm guessing France is trying to keep it as quiet as possible, but this is serious. This was clearly an organized operation of some group that is not yet identified.