{"id":327749,"date":"2024-07-26T07:50:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T07:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/?p=327749"},"modified":"2024-07-26T07:50:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T07:50:46","slug":"frances-rail-network-disrupted-by-malicious-acts-ahead-of-olympics-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/news\/frances-rail-network-disrupted-by-malicious-acts-ahead-of-olympics-opening-ceremony\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"France’s rail network disrupted by ‘malicious acts’ ahead of Olympics opening ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

French rail company SNCF says its high-speed network has been targeted by “malicious acts” aimed at paralysing the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes hours before the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several high-speed TGV lines have been hit to the west, north and east of Paris and queues have formed at Gare Montparnasse station in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of trains have been cancelled and SNCF has warned that the situation could last “at least all weekend while repairs are conducted”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three lines disrupted after vandalism, including arson, SNCF says<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hours ahead of the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Paris<\/a>, the French railway company SNCF says it’s been hit by a series of “malicious acts” aimed at paralysing its high speed network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Last night, the SNCF was victim of several acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines. Fires were deliberately set to damage our installations,” the SNCF said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport minister condemns ‘criminal acts’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s bring you some comments from the French transport minister, who has strongly condemned “criminal acts” following vandalism on the rail network overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posting on social media Patrice Vergriete wrote: “Co-ordinated malicious acts targeted several TGV lines last night and will seriously disrupt traffic until this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I strongly condemn these criminal actions which will compromise the vacation departures of many French people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vergriete went on to thank SNCF staff on trying to restore services “as quickly as possible”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were acts of ‘sabotage’, says source close to investigation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We’re beginning to see some further details about what happened overnight to the rail networks in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFP news agency has just reported comments they have received from a source close to the investigation who says the arson attacks were acts of “sabotage”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their source added that the attacks were “evidently co-ordinated”, according to the news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were acts of ‘sabotage’, says source close to investigationpublished at 08:2308:23<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We’re beginning to see some further details about what happened overnight to the rail networks in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFP news agency has just reported comments they have received from a source close to the investigation who says the arson attacks were acts of “sabotage”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their source added that the attacks were “evidently co-ordinated”, according to the news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s hard not to see a link with the Olympic Games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SNCF says it\u2019s been a victim overnight of a “massive attack aimed at paralysing the network\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fires were started at three points on TGV lines running west, north and east of Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fourth arson attack on the line running south to Lyon and the Mediterranean was foiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that TGV trains are being diverted onto other lines, leading to delays of up to two hours and some cancellations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repairs will not be completed until after the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No claim of responsibility has been made but it is hard not to see a link with the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was always going to be a very busy day in Paris stations, with visitors arriving for the opening ceremony in one direction, and in the other many Parisians leaving at the start of their summer holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passengers asked to postpone trips and not to travel to stations – SNCF latest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the last few moments France’s state-owned SNCF company has warned rail passengers who can postpone their trip to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SNCF is advising travellers “not to go to the station” – a reminder only the Atlantique, Nord and Est lines of the TGV network are impacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlantique goes from Paris to Bordeaux, the Nord goes from Paris to Lille and the Est takes passengers from Paris to Strasbourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rail firm says tickets for these disrupted journeys are exchangeable and refundable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Following this massive attack aimed at paralyzing the high-speed line network, a large number of trains were diverted or cancelled,” SNCF reiterates in a social media post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCE: BBC NEWS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Stories Here <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French rail company SNCF says its high-speed network has been targeted by “malicious acts” aimed at paralysing the system. It comes hours before the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games. Several high-speed TGV lines have been hit to the west, north and east of Paris and queues have formed at Gare Montparnasse station in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":327750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,2773,23],"tags":[21648,21483,21632,21647],"class_list":["post-327749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-trending","category-world","tag-disruption","tag-olympics","tag-paris","tag-rail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/83530bc0-4b1c-11ef-aebc-6de4d31bf5cd.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327751,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327749\/revisions\/327751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}