Fears are mounting that Moscow may be behind a ‘massive arson attack’ which has brought chaos to France’s rail network ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony.
With just hours to go before the grand procession on the River Seine, fires were started at key facilities, bringing trains to a halt and affecting around 800,000 passengers – including athletes and spectators heading to the Games.
While no claim of responsibility has been made and French authorities are yet to name suspects, experts have suggested a correlation between acts of sabotage and Russian fury over their national team being excluded from the games.
Security analyst Alex Kokcharov told : ‘Russia has both the intent and capability to attempt sabotage acts in Europe, especially in France. Russian intent is largely linked to the fact that Russia was not invited to the Olympic games.’
The Eurostar is advising passengers not to travel today after its rail services between London and Paris were disrupted by the acts of vandalism, with trains cancelled and others diverted, causing disruption at London St Pancras and across France.
Passengers wait for their train departures at the Gare Montparnasse train station in Paris on July 26, 2024 as France’s high-speed rail network was hit by malicious acts disrupting the transport system
SNCF employees and French gendarmes inspect the scene of a suspected attack on the high speed railway network at Croiselles, northern France on July 26, 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured today during a meeting with the Belarusian President in northern Russia
Passengers inside Gare de Bordeaux Saint-Jean station after threats against France’s high-speed TGV network, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony
Passengers queue at the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras station in central London
French President Emmanuel Macron is pictured this morning at the Elysee palace in Paris
In further disruption to travel as international visitors descend on France, a Franco-Swiss airport was temporarily evacuated for security reasons.
EuroAirport, located on the French side of the border near Basel, said on its website that it had reopened and flight operations were gradually restarting.
The dramatic start to the games comes after an alleged Russian spy was arrested on Wednesday. Kirill Gryaznov was charged with working ‘with a foreign power to try and incite hostilities in France’ after being identified as working for the FSB, Vladimir Putin’s domestic intelligence agency.
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The 40-year-old reality TV star – who denies any wrongdoing – is said to have boasted about turning the start of the Paris Olympics into ‘an opening ceremony like no other’.
The Kremlin fumed today that it had read ‘curious information’ in the media about the arrest of a Russian national, and demanded an explanation from French authorities.
It was warned back in April that Moscow has made ‘thousands’ of attempts to interfere with European rail networks in a campaign to destabilise the EU and sabotage infrastructure.
The claims were made by the Czech Republic’s transport minister Martin Kupka, who told the FT that ‘thousands of attempts to weaken our systems’ had been made since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Today’s disruption comes hours ahead of the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games – with many opening ceremony ticketholders desperately scrambling to make tonight’s show.
The International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach has said he has ‘full confidence in French authorities’ after the attacks.
Pictures show chaos at railway stations across Paris, as well as travelers hoping to head to the French capital from London being stranded at St Pancras.
The Gare du Nord – the main Eurostar station in Paris – was hit by attacks on its rail network overnight, according to a spokesman for SNCF, France’s rail operator.
This caused the cancellation of multiple services, including ones meant to be bringing sports fans from London into the French capital, with thousands of UK travellers planning to head to Paris today for the opening ceremony.
Analysts have warned in the run up to the event that Russian saboteurs were preparing to disrupt the Games, which their national team is shut out of.
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Kokcharov, a Russia analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that recent activity suggests ‘intensifying Russia-linked hybrid warfare operations in Europe’.
He pointed to the arrest of a suspected IED plotter, a Russian-Ukrainian man, on June 3 near Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport as revealing ‘possible tactics of Russian state-directed terrorism risks’ on the continent.
France’s former ambassador to Moscow, Jean de Gliniasty, said Russia could very well be behind the sabotage.
‘We are obviously in a situation of conflict with Russia, and Russia is obviously not going to do anything, and that is an understatement, to help these Olympic Games be a success,’ he told LCI.
‘And so we’re going to come up against a lot of difficulties of this kind, either direct or indirect.’
He added that the involvement of far-left radicals could not be ruled out either, suggesting that protests in the country have ‘got out of hand’ in recent years.
France’s intelligence services have been scrambling to determine the perpetrators of the sabotage, with a security source telling news outlets that the arson method used resembled past attacks by extreme-left actors.
It comes after a 40-year-old man was charged with working ‘with a foreign power to try and incite hostilities in France’ earlier this week. Kirill Gryaznov who denies any wrongdoing – has been identified as working for the FSB, Russia ‘s Federal Security Service domestic intelligence agency
A French gendarme walks on a platform near an InOui high-speed TGV train at the Gare Montparnasse train station in Paris on July 26, 2024
Macron met with President of Argentina Javier Milei this morning ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony
Hours before the grand opening ceremony, travelers are stranded at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris
While experts admit that it can be difficult to directly attribute interference to Moscow directly, it is clear that ‘Russia wants to sow discord and weaken cooperation among European states to help them have their way in Ukraine,’ according to Petter Nesser.
The expert on terrorism in Europe told Vox: ‘They have shown in the past they can use their spy networks and proxies to sow discord.’
Last month, websites for a French film festival and the Grand Palais, a historic exhibition and museum complex in Paris, shut down after a cyberattack – which researchers tracked to a group of hacktivists affiliated with Russian intelligence.
They reported that the hackers described it as a training exercise, according to Business Standard, and warned that ‘judging by the consistency of the group’s statements, they intend to carry out large-scale attacks during the Summer Olympics in Paris.’
Passengers queue at the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras station in central London. French rail officials say several lines have been hit by ‘malicious acts’ which have heavily disrupted services ahead of the Olympics
Travelers sit on stairs at the Gare de Montparnasse, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024
Passengers gather around the departure boards at the Gare Montparnasse train station in Paris on July 26, 2024 as France’s high-speed rail network was hit by malicious acts disrupting the transport system hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Officials are today saying that there have been a series of ‘coordinated malicious acts’ which have affected ‘numerous stations’, with services across France cancelled or delayed.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the consequences of the attacks on the rail network are ‘massive and serious’, and expressed his gratitude to firefighters for putting out the fires.
He added that ‘intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.’
Jean-Pierre Farandou, the head of France’s rail operator the SNCF, said it was a ‘sad day’ because families would be the worst affected by what he said were attacks by ‘irresponsible cranks’.
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said the ‘criminal actions will compromise the holiday departures of many French people.’
They were focused on the TGV high speed train network which covers the whole of France, and which is particularly busy at this time of year.
The first blaze was detected early on Friday morning near tracks at Courtalain, in the Eure-et-Loir department.
It caused the interruption of traffic on the hugely busy Atlantique high-speed line.
SNCF also referred to a ‘malicious act’ on the high-speed line between Lille and Paris, in the northern Arras sector.
People walk in front of the Olympic village canteen at the Athletes’ Village of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Saint Denis, France on Tuesday. The Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in Paris
TGV Inoui and Ouigo trains were diverted to conventional lines, causing cancellations and far longer journey times.
Crowds built up at major Paris stations such as Montparnasse, where trains to and from nearby towns such as Tours and Le Mans were all cancelled.
A spokesman for SNCF said it was the victim of ‘a massive arson attack to paralyze the TGV network’
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He said the disruption should ‘last at least the whole weekend’, and would have a knock-on effect across the network.
Further travel disruption is set to be caused by a no-fly zone the size of Belgium being imposed across northern France during the ceremony tonight.
All three Paris airports will be closed from early evening until around midnight, amid fears of a possible terror attack.
The French Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement: ‘A temporary prohibited area is created to ensure the implementation of the special air security arrangements as part of the protection of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games 2024.’
Olympic organisers have long feared acts of sabotage targeting the multi-billion pound games, and a vast security operation costing £350million has unfolded in Paris to try and counter threats.
The largest peacetime deployment of forces in France’s history involves some 75,000 soldiers, police and private security agents.
‘We’re focused and we’re ready,’ said General Lionel Catar, one of the military planners before the showpiece opening.
The priority is to protect some 80,000 competitors as they progress down the River Seine in dozens of barges, in front of some 350,000 spectators, and a TV audience of more than a billion.
Gérald Darmanin, France’s Interior Ministry, said ‘the terrorist threat remains high’ and that ‘a high level of vigilance’ remains essential.
Yesterday, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, alerted the French foreign ministry to a potential terror threat in a diplomatic note on Thursday, expressing his fear that Iran might target Israelis during the Olympic Games.
French policemen patrol amid preparations for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris, France, July 24, 2024
France has been on high alert over the past few weeks as preparations to host the Olympics hit the final stretch (pictured above: security at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on July 24)
Members of the Gendarmerie are seen at Place de la Concorde ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 25, 2024 in Paris, France
Armed guards near the Plaza de la Bastilla, Paris. The Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games takes place on Friday July 26, along the River Seine
‘We have intelligence indicating that Iranian operatives and other terrorist groups are planning to target members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists,’ Katz said in his warning, according to Israeli media.
This comes as French cops detained an alleged jihadist over suspicions of a terror plot targeting the Olympics.
The 18-year-old man from Gironde, a region in southwest France, was arrested yesterday, with police reportedly finding evidence for him believing jihadist ideology, according to local media.
Investigators confirmed to local media that the was connected to another man, also 18, who was taken into custody on Tuesday.
The two allegedly communicated on an encrypted messaging service, where they reportedly wrote that they wanted to commit a ‘violent action’ against the Olympics soon.