Gerald Darmanin, France's interior minister, said on Saturday he could not rule out foreign involvement in the attack, which involved the sabotage of signal stations and cables on the country's high-speed rail network.
It caused chaos in travel on the opening day of the Olympic Games, writes Reuters. Friday's pre-dawn attacks damaged infrastructure along lines linking Paris to Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack, on the Paris-Marseille line, was thwarted, rail operator SNCF said. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 television:
“Who is responsible? Whether it was from within or whether it was an order from abroad, it is too early to say. We have found a certain number of elements that give us reason to believe that we will know fairly quickly who is responsible.”
Two security sources told the paper on Friday that suspicions were falling on leftist militants or environmental activists, but there was no evidence yet. Transport Minister Patrice Vergritt and the head of rail operator SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou promised that services on France's high-speed rail network would return to normal on Monday, they told reporters on Saturday.
SNCF has confirmed that transport plans for teams competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be guaranteed. On Friday, 100,000 people were unable to board their trainswhile another 150,000 encountered delays but eventually reached their destinations, Vergritt said. First several officials and then acting Prime Minister Gabrielle Attal said the evidence pointed to a deliberate act of sabotage.
Earlier, our publication reported that on suspicion of preparing provocations in Paris at the Olympics arrested 40-year-old Russian Kirill Gryaznov
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