Olympic athletes get stuck after sabotage shuts down French trains

• The night before the Olympic opening ceremony, France's rail network was hit by arson attacks.
• The French prime minister called the attacks "acts of sabotage."
• France's transport network has faced a series of other setbacks as it readies for Olympic crowds.

France's rail network has been hit by a series of "malicious acts" that have damaged transport routes leading to the capital, causing cancellations and disruption just hours before the Paris Olympics' opening ceremony.

"Last night, SNCF was the victim of several simultaneous malicious acts affecting the Atlantique, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines," the SNCF, France's train operator, said in a statement.

"Deliberate fires were set to damage our facilities," the operator said, adding that another incident "has been thwarted on South East high speed line."

The three affected lines, which are part of the TGV rail network, connect Paris to Bordeaux in southwest France, Lille in the north, and Strasbourg on the border with Germany.

Trains have been canceled, and the disruption will likely last "at least the whole weekend while the network is repaired," the SNCF said.

France's national railway company later said it made emergency repairs and was gradually resuming service — though many lines featured one to two-hour delays and fewer trains than normal.

Two trains taking Olympic athletes to Paris were also impacted, the Associated Press reported, noting one had been canceled and the other could potentially proceed.

It was unclear which athletes were affected or whether the athletes remained stuck.

"Early this morning, acts of sabotage were carried out in a prepared and coordinated manner on SNCF installations," French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in a post on X.

The impact on the rail network was "massive and serious," Attal wrote.

The prime minister said France's intelligence services and law enforcement had been mobilized to find the arsonists. At the time of publication, nothing was publicly known about who carried out the acts or why.

The Paris prosecutor's office has also opened an investigation into the attack, the BBC reports. A memo from prosecutors said the various crimes could carry punishments of between 10 to 20 years of imprisonment and six-figure fines, the outlet reported.

Though several Olympic events are being held outside Paris, Attal highlighted the impact on French families leaving for vacation this weekend, rather than on the Olympics.

The SNCF said 250,000 travelers were expected to travel Friday and another 800,000 over the weekend.

This weekend marks the start of a French custom known as the "grand départ," during which many Parisians leave the city and take the entire month of August off.

"This is an attack on France," the boss of the SCNF told the local news station BFM TV.

In addition to disruption within France, the attacks have caused issues with Eurostar trains, which run between London and Paris, and affected several other major European cities.

The attacks add more concerns over whether Paris' transport infrastructure can manage the Olympic crowds.

Officials promised to reinvigorate the transport system after Paris won the Olympic bid.

But in November, the mayor of Paris said there were parts of the city where "transport will not be ready and there will not be enough trains," according to the French radio network RFI.

However, the system has seen a "significant improvement" in recent months, Jimmy Brun, a spokesman for the Parisian transport authority, said, per the Olympics-focused news outlet Inside the Games.

According to France 24, 90% of Paris Métro trains were on time in March.

The capital, which has a population of about 2 million, expects 11 million visitors to descend on the city to enjoy the two weeks of games — almost double the number that visited Paris in July and August in 2023, according to the Paris tourism site Paris Je T'aime.

The city's congested metro system has also been criticized as lacking accessibility. In 2018, only 3% of Paris' metro stations were wheelchair-accessible, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Organizers have arranged for shuttle buses to support people with disabilities.