A ‘massive fire’ on the French rail network caused chaos at the start of the Paris Olympics today.
Just hours before the opening ceremony on the River Seine on Friday, fires broke out at key facilities, forcing trains to stop.
Gare du Nord, the main Eurostar station in Paris, has been hit by ongoing attacks on the rail network, a spokesman for SNCF, France’s rail operator, said.
“A number of stations are affected, including Garde du Nord, and services across France have been cancelled or delayed,” he said.
Thousands of people from the UK will travel by train to Paris today for the start of the Olympic Games.
This led to the cancellation of multiple services, including those bringing sports fans to the French capital.
“There has been a series of coordinated malicious acts,” said Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete, pointing to a series of fires.
They focused on the TGV high-speed rail network, which covers the whole of France and which is particularly busy at this time of year.
Beyond the Olympic Games, Vergriete said that “criminal actions will jeopardise the holiday outings of many French people.”
The first fire was detected early on Friday morning near the Courtalain railway line in the Eure-et-Loir department.
It caused traffic disruption on the busy Atlantique high-speed line.
SNCF has also denounced a “malicious act” on the high-speed line between Lille and Paris, in the northern sector of Arras.
The TGV Inoui and Ouigo trains were diverted to conventional lines, resulting in cancellations and much longer journey times.
Crowds gathered at major Paris stations such as Montparnasse, where trains to and from nearby cities such as Tours and Le Mans were cancelled.
A spokesman for SNCF said it was the victim of “a massive fire to paralyse the TGV network”.
He said the outage was expected to “last at least through the weekend” and would have a ripple effect across the network.
Criminal investigations will be launched into the attacks, but there was no initial theory about who was behind them.
Olympic organisers have long feared acts of sabotage against the multi-billion pound games, and a vast £350m security operation has been launched in Paris to try to counter the threats.
The largest peacetime deployment of forces in French history involves some 75,000 soldiers, police and private security agents.
“We are focused and ready,” said Gen. Lionel Catar, one of the military planners before the inauguration.
The priority is to protect the 80,000 or so competitors who will sail down the Seine in dozens of barges, in front of some 350,000 spectators and a television audience of more than one billion.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that “the terrorist threat remains high” and that “a high level of vigilance” remains essential.