2024 France railway arson attacks

High-speed train lines targeted by attacks

On 26 July 2024, prior to the beginning of the 2024 Summer Olympics, the LGV Atlantique, Nord and Est lines of the French high-speed railway system were damaged by a series of arson attacks. It is estimated that 800,000 passengers were affected. The arsonist and vandals had damaged signal boxes along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled. Later, Eurostar confirmed that they have cancelled 1 in 4 trains as arson attacks cause French high-speed rail chaos. Apart from international trains, domestic rail services were also widely disrupted. The Paris prosecutor has opened a probe into a suspected bid to undermine "fundamental national interests". The intelligence services and law enforcement were mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.

Reactions

• The French sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra expressed her outrage at the vandalism and emphasized that targeting the games is equivalent to targeting France itself.
• The Czech Republic's transport minister Martin Kupka claimed that Russian president Putin has mobilized 'thousands' of hands to interfere with European rail networks during the sport event. He was referring to his own statement from April 2024.
• The Russian government has expressed his anger about the mis-information in the media about the arrest of a Russian national, and demanded an explanation from French authorities.