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TENS OF THOUSANDS of rail passengers struggled through a second day of cancelled trains today as investigators tracked saboteurs who paralysed the network just ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The SNCF rail company chief Jean-Pierre Farandou said services would be back to normal by Monday. But deputy transport minister Patrice Vergriete acknowledged that 160,000 of the 800,000 people due to travel this weekend still faced cancellations.
Nearly one third of trains were cancelled in northern, western and eastern France. About a quarter of Eurostar high speed trains between Paris and London and Paris and Brussels were also called off.
No claim of responsibility has been made for the meticulously planned night-time attacks on cabling boxes at junctions north, southwest and east of the French capital, just ahead of Friday’s Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. Maintenance workers thwarted a fourth attack.
But Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the investigation was progressing.
“We have uncovered a certain number of elements that allow us to think that we will soon know who is responsible for what clearly did not sabotage the Olympic Games but did sabotage part of the holidays of the French people,” Darmanin told France 2 television.
French authorities are on high alert for a terrorist attack during the Games, which run until 11 August. Tens of thousands of police and troops are on Olympics security duties.
Some 250,000 people missed their train yesterday according to SNCF, because of the attacks that dozens of investigators are now working on.
About three out of every 10 trains were cancelled Saturday in the three regions affected by the attacks, with most trains still operating delayed by between one and two hours, SNCF said.
Bruno Cevalier and Pauline Favard tried to get from Bordeaux in the west to the northern city of Lille for an Olympics basketball game. “We have to change trains in Paris and the games are not going to wait for us,” said Cevalier.
Kathleen Cuvellier, speaking in Lille, said her journey to Avignon in the south was going to be “hell”.
Cuvellier, travelling with her two-year-old son, said she now had to take a slow train to Paris and then switch to another for Avignon. “The travel time was four hours and now it’s going to be seven”.
“One doesn’t have any choice,” commented Cecile Bonnefond, whose train from Lille to the western city of Nantes was cancelled.
Trains to eastern France largely returned to normal. But traffic will remain disrupted into Sunday in northern France and into Britain and Belgium, while services to western France would slowly improve, SNCF said.
The company said its staff worked through the night “in difficult conditions in the rain” to get the affected lines working again.
The coordinated attacks staged at 4:00 am local time cut fibre optic cables running along the tracks that transmit safety information to train drivers. The attackers also set fire to the cables.
“Everything will be back to normal for Monday morning,” SNCF president Farandou told reporters at Paris Montparnasse station. “We will be ready.”
Most passengers at the station remained patience. But they were given regular loudspeaker reminders that “a malicious act” meant trains would be cancelled or delayed.
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Anyone else notice just how bizarre and deliberately provocative the opening ceremony was,par for the course now at these events! A procession of drag queens, demons,severed heads and mocking pastiches of religious imagery such as the last supper etc! All well and good,but what if anything does it have to do with sport?
@Jonn: a freaky sideshow more than anything else, it will only put people off
@Jonn: Oh, you’ll like this. Trump’s ear heald fast…
“And I saw that one of his heads was, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world wondered after the beast.” – Revelation 13:3
@Jonn: That’s the second time that you’ve posted this today. Did you not get enough traction first time round?
@David Jordan:
Ok, I have no idea what that was, but best of luck to you,seems like you’ll need it!
@Jonn: ah, ces français !
@SYaxJ2Ts: just like the saboteurs in France, these anti West commentators on the journal will keep persisting as its their job. They get paid to do this. Death by a thousand cuts. The journal should do better on their moderation.
The ones who couldn’t make it to the opening ceremony got lucky – missed all the nonsense
Wonder if Operation Gladio is still active in Europe.
Also, will Germany, Sweden or Denmark actually have the stones to admit who they think did blow up Nordstream 2 considering only one President was mad to get rid of it.
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: No, Gladio was a plan relating to “stay behind” forces in case of a successful Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Personnel was allocated and weapons and equipment caches were planned and or operational.
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: Who cares about Nordstream 2. if it slows down or reduces income for the terrorist state of russia, then well done to whoever blew it up.
While you are on the subject, will russia have the stones to admit they bombed the children’s hospital in the last 2 weeks, the Mariupol theatre war crimes or Bucha war crimes. I’m sure the families and victims of the countless russian war crimes couldn’t give a toss about Nordstream 2.
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: I see the crazy is out
This was posted to a Ukrainian news website just days before the arson attacks in France.
Ukraine foiled an arson attack by a gang recruited by the Russian FSB (successor to thd KGB). The arson attacks were to be carried out in eastern Ukraine and EU countries.
“The criminal group consisted of 19 members residing in Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Zaporizhzhya oblasts.
The operatives recruited candidates to commit arson attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine and abroad.
Their primary targets included shopping centers, gas stations, pharmacies, and markets. They used personal connections within criminal circles to find future perpetrators.
To facilitate the arsonists’ travel abroad, the group prepared forged documents. After carrying out the arson attacks, the perpetrators were instructed to record the fires on video to report back to the FSB.
Law enforcement officers seized mobile phones, handwritten notes, forged documents, firearms, bank cards, and cash amounting to $77,000 and 500,000 hryvnias ($12,120) after conducting 37 raids.”
France also arrested a Russian with links to the Russia FSB, days before the attacks, who they claim was part of a plot…
“The 40-year-old man was arrested during a raid of his apartment in central Paris on Sunday where a document linked to an elite Russian special forces unit operating under the command of the FSB, an heir to the KGB, was reportedly found.
A judicial investigation has been opened into allegations of sharing “intelligence with a foreign power with a view to provoking hostilities in France,” a crime punishable by 30 years of imprisonment. The alleged plot is not believed to have been terror related.”
@David Jordan:
‘A Ukrainian news service’? Well,that’s good enough for me, you can take it to the bank!
Keep it hush hush for as long as possible, lads lol
Down with colour, inclusion and fun! Not everything is for everyone.
@Jack Hayes: if you believe that colour, inclusion and fun should involve grown men parading around with their balls hanging out in front of teenage girls, then I fear for the safety of women and girls everywhere
@Peter Mansfield: You’re getting your apples and oranges mixed up again princesses ..
Bring back ‘Its a knockout’, of the BBC from the 1980′s.
have your say