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The coordinated attacks took place at 4am local time (0200 GMT).
At each location, criminals targeted fiber-optic cables that transmit driver safety information and control track changes, said Jean-Pierre Farandou, chief executive of SNCF.
Gerard Douis, mayor of Croisiers in northern France, one of the facilities attacked, said the attackers used specialized equipment to access the cables and then “poured flammable liquid on them.”
Vigerit said the vandals were spotted driving a “van” and “incendiary devices were found at the scene.”
Paris prosecutors have launched an investigation into an attack on “fundamental state interests” and a criminal conspiracy.
Similar sabotage attacks took place in Germany last year and in eastern France in January 2023.
The attacks left passengers stranded at stations across Paris and in many cities in eastern, western and northern France.
Some people at Paris’ Montparnasse station were in tears.
Charles Fazio, a 70-year-old American from Florida, came to the TV station to try to understand what was going on. “I don’t understand anything,” he said. “We’re going to Lille tomorrow for the Olympics.”
French security forces are on high alert to prevent attacks during the Paris Olympics.
Workers carrying out maintenance work in Vergine, southeast of Paris, thwarted an attempted attack.
French officials declined to comment on the identity of the vandals.
France’s far-left anarchists have repeatedly targeted the train network with arson attacks. A security source told AFP the methods used were similar to past attacks by far-leftists.
President Emmanuel Macron has said in the past that Russia planned to target the Olympics, and police arrested a Russian man in Paris this week on suspicion of “organizing activities that could lead to destabilization during the Olympic Games.”
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