High-speed rail services suspended after fires ‘set intentionally’ to damage network
France has suspended high-speed rail services across much of the country after the network was hit by sabotage attacks hours before the Olympic Games opening ceremony. The co-ordinated arson attacks on Thursday night will alarm organisers of the Paris summer games as they prepare to host hundreds of thousands of spectators in the capital for the opening ceremony.
Estimating that some 800,000 travellers would be affected, he said pipes that carry electric cables had been affected, requiring painstaking work to repair. Security and transport officials had been contingency planning for such incidents in the years-long organisation of the Games, but appear to have been unable to stop them. Some 45,000 police are already patrolling Paris and Laurent Nunez, the city’s police chief, said additional police were being sent to train stations.
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