Fires on French railway tracks have delayed journeys for 800,000 travelers in what the transport minister described as “coordinated attacks of malicious intent.”

A co-ordinated arson attack on the French rail system is turning the first weekend of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris into a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of travelers.

French rail company SNCF announced on Friday its high-speed train system had been hit by “deliberate arson attacks to damage [its] facilities” causing delays and cancellations which are expected to last all weekend.

The disruptions are affecting trains heading East, North and West of Paris, and travelers have been asked to postpone their plans.

    • Billy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      To weaken France’s image, to sow chaos, to get security forces focused on other things while they try to get specific targets.

      There have been reports about both Russia and Iran being potentially involved.
      So far I’ve seen an article about a Russian getting arrested 2 days ago.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Lmao you absolute muppet. This is just Paris doing Paris things. The Olympics generally bring a lot of annoying and negative side effects to a city and region, in addition to (and often, because of) the increased tourism. Parisians and the French in general are famously unapologetic about engaging in direct action when they think their government is being a bunch of dumbasses, or they wish to express staunch displeasure with a policy or event that they strongly disagree with. This is just that.

        • Uruanna@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          If you think a bunch of trains running late for a day causes terror, you don’t know the French rail system.

            • Uruanna@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I don’t know the other countries. I don’t mean it happens everywhere every day, but a big storm can throw a few trees on the lines to the South and bench all trains on those lines for half a day easily. Anyway I also meant it’s not terror, just irritation. Which is usual for French people. No one was harmed, people are just sour they can’t go on vacation.