France probes ultra-left link to rail sabotage

PARIS — France was on Monday probing the possible involvement of ultra-left movements in attacks that paralysed the rail network at the start of the Olympic Games, as new sabotage acts affected fibre optic cables in several areas.

With the government vigilant over the risk of more such attacks during the Games, French authorities on Sunday arrested an activist from an ultra-left movement at a site belonging to national rail operator SNCF.

Police said the cables of several telecoms operators had been sabotaged in six areas of France overnight from Sunday into Monday but Paris was not affected.

AFP confirmed with major carriers including Free and SFR that they had been affected, although no major disruptions had yet been reported.

"It's vandalism," said Nicolas Chatin, spokesman for SFR, one of France's four biggest operators.

"Large sections of cables were cut. You would have to use an axe or a grinder."

But the group minimised the impact of any disruption, saying that in the end only 10,000 fixed line customers had been affected.

Paris chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau said police had opened a second criminal probe into the fibre optic cable incidents, saying the perpetrators were suspected of "causing material damage with the intention of harming fundamental interests of the nation".

'Progressing well' 

The ultra-left activist was detained at Oissel in northern France on Sunday and had access keys to SNCF technical premises, tools and literature linked to the "ultra-left", said a police source, asking not to be named.

He was placed in police custody for questioning in Rouen, the main city of France's Normandy region.

But there was no immediate link between him and the investigation into the attacks early Friday, the source said.

Unknown individuals had in the early hours of Friday attacked three different railway installations in different parts of France, causing days of chaos on the high-speed network as Paris hosts the 2024 Olympic Games.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 television that the authorities were looking into the theory that "ultra-left" movements were behind the attacks.

French services have "identified a certain number of profiles that could have committed" the sabotage acts, he said.

He said the "attacks were very intentional and well targeted".

Darmanin added that this was "the traditional mode of operation of the ultra-left".

"The question is whether they were manipulated by other people or is it for their own account," he added. "We are progressing well and we will find them."

He said the saboteurs clearly had "information" about the installations but declined to comment when asked if he believed they had come from within the SNCF.

An email purporting to claim the attacks was received at the weekend by several French media outlets, using rhetoric typical of militant groups and slamming the Olympics as a "celebration of nationalism".

But it contained no detail as to how the attacks were carried out and police sources who spoke to AFP cautioned against seeing the e-mail as a claim of responsibility.

Darmanin said the message could have been "opportunist".

 'Frankly furious' 

By Monday morning all high-speed trains in France were running normally again after railway engineers worked round the clock to repair the damage, said Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete.

The cost of the sabotage will "very probably" amount to millions of euros, including "commercial losses" and "repair costs", the minister told RTL.

In Friday's attacks, fibre optic cables running near the tracks and ensuring the transmission of safety information for drivers, such as signalling lights and points, were cut and set on fire on three of the main high-speed lines, in the west, north and east of France.

It is not yet clear if police are linking the sabotage attacks on the telecommunications and rail cables.

A source close to the case told AFP nobody had yet said they were responsible for the telecoms sabotage.

Nicolas Guillaume of Netalis, a fibre optic operator, said: "What frankly makes us furious is that we feel the state has not realised the importance of these potential attacks on France's strategic infrastructure."

"We've already seen it with what happened to the SNCF," he said.