800,000 impacted by French rail 'sabotage' ahead of Olympics

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00:00We begin with that coordinated sabotage of France's national rail network, just hours

00:04ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony tonight in Paris.

00:08The SNCF targeted by what they've called a massive attack with overnight vandalism,

00:12including arson, targeting cable boxes and signaling systems.

00:16The seemingly coordinated attacks hit major axes to the northeast and southwest of Paris,

00:22while another was thwarted in the southeast.

00:25Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation.

00:28Some 800,000 travellers have been impacted, with the Eurostar cancelling a quarter of

00:33its trains.

00:34It comes not only as Paris hosts the Olympics, but also as people across France have been

00:38travelling for the summer holidays.

00:41Let's hear from some passengers stranded at the Gare Montparnasse here in Paris.

00:45It's a criminal act.

00:51It's the opening ceremony of the Olympics today.

00:55All the French travelling today are affected, and many tourists too.

00:59The world's eyes are on Paris right now.

01:01It's unacceptable.

01:02We've been trying to find ways to arrive at our destination.

01:11There are some ferries available until 6.30pm, so we're exploring different options.

01:18On the application it says our train is two hours late, so we're hoping it'll stay that

01:23way.

01:24If it doesn't, we'll have to take a car and drive to Spain or something.

01:28But for now, we can just keep our fingers crossed and wait.

01:33For the very latest, we can cross to the Gare Montparnasse and speak to France 24's Sophie

01:37Lamotte, who's been following the situation for us there.

01:40Sophie, what's the latest on train traffic?

01:44Absolutely.

01:47You can see behind me, we're just outside Gare Montparnasse, and the traffic is starting

01:51up again very slowly.

01:53We're seeing some movement.

01:54Essentially, the axes that are the most impacted are those towards circulating trains bound

02:01towards the southwestern part of France.

02:05We've spoken to the head of the Atlantic Railway, the person in charge of the whole western

02:11axis of the trains, who said that only one out of three trains are currently circulating

02:16throughout France, throughout that region of France.

02:19He's also expressed how sorry the SNCF was for not being up to the task.

02:25As he said, he's reminded how important of a weekend this was in terms of travels, Parisians

02:29leaving the capital, people traveling from all over France and all over Europe to get

02:34to the opening ceremony today of the Olympics, obviously.

02:38He's also said that four Olympic trains, trains carrying athletes, were impacted this morning.

02:44Two of them were able to depart, but two of them are still on shore.

02:48If these athletes are going to make it or not to the opening ceremony tonight, that's

02:54supposed to happen, take place in just a few hours.

02:57He said that hundreds of police officers, firefighters, and engineers from the SNCF are

03:02currently working to fix this breach.

03:06That's certainly a pretty major disruption.

03:08What have you been hearing from the travelers you've been speaking to?

03:12Absolutely.

03:14If you go inside the Montparnasse station just behind me, you'll hear announcements

03:19after announcements resonating through the halls with, you know, obviously announcements

03:23of trains being delayed, more trains being canceled, and hundreds if not thousands of

03:27people sitting on the ground in the station with their luggage waiting, stranded, as you've

03:33mentioned just earlier, 800,000 of them stranded.

03:36There's a real sense of frustration here in the Gare Montparnasse with Parisians leaving

03:40on holiday, some wanting to escape the chaos of the Olympics with so many tourists, millions

03:46of tourists coming to Paris.

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