General
More Trains, but Few Answers, After Railway Sabotage in France
France’s national railway company said traffic was gradually returning to normal a day after arsonists disrupted three high-speed rail lines. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Railway workers in France rushed to wrap up delicate repair work on Saturday, a day after arsonists sabotaged three high-speed train lines and caused disruptions that have eased up but are expected to last through the weekend.
The sabotage upended travel plans for over a million end-of-week passengers and caused chaos just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Summer Olympics on Friday.
The ceremony itself unfurled across the Seine River without any major issue other than pouring rain, allowing French security officials to breath a sigh of relief.
“WE DID IT!” Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, exulted on X, adding that “after four years of intense work to prepare for the world’s biggest sport event, we have never been prouder of our security forces.”
But the railway sabotage cast a shadow over that elation. The French authorities have said little about who might be responsible or what the exact motives were.
No arrests have been made, and no one has publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks, which hit three separate locations on France’s vast railway network around 4 a.m. on Friday: Courtalain, southwest of Paris; Pagny-sur-Moselle, to the east; and Croisilles, to the north. All are over 60 miles from the French capital.
