French railway company SNCF said Friday that its tracks been targeted overnight by “a massive attack aimed at paralyzing the network”, with fires deliberately started on high-speed rail lines leading into the French capital.
The arson attacks come just hours before the kick-off of the ambitious Olympics opening ceremony on the River Seine.
The SNCF asked travellers to postpone their journeys, with some 800,000 people expected to be impacted on what was due to be big travel day in and out of Paris due to the opening ceremony as well as the peak summer vacation season.
Some of the country’s high speed TGV trains have been diverted on to classic rail lines but the majority have been cancelled.
The Eurostar, connecting London and Paris, has also been disrupted.
According to British embassy figures released earlier this week, more than 500,000 Olympic tickets have been bought out of the UK, with the country set to be biggest attendee of the games running July 26 to August 11, after France.
The SNCF said its teams were already at the sites of the damage but repairs would be not be completed until the weekend.
France is on high security alert as the Paris games kick off with some with some 45,000 police officers, 20,000 private security agents 18,000 military personnel on patrol around French capital.
more to follow…