France suffers second day of sabotage train delays

AFP | Paris, France

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Tens of thousands of rail passengers struggled through a second day of cancelled trains yesterday as investigators tracked saboteurs who paralysed the network just ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

The SNCF rail company chief Jean-Pierre Farandou said services would be back to normal by Monday.

But deputy transport minister authorities acknowledged that 160,000 of the 800,000 people due to travel this weekend still faced cancellations.

Nearly one third of trains were cancelled in northern, western and eastern France.

About a quarter of Eurostar high speed trains between London and Paris also failed to leave.

No claim of responsibility has been made for the meticulously planned night-time attacks on cabling boxes at junctions north, southwest and east of the French capital, just ahead of Friday's Olympics opening ceremony in Paris.

Maintenance workers thwarted a fourth attack. But Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the investigation was progressing.

"We have uncovered a certain number of elements that allow us to think that we will soon know who is responsible for what clearly did not sabotage the Olympic Games but did sabotage part of the holidays of the French people," Darmanin told France 2 television.

French authorities are on high alert for a terrorist attack during the Games, which run through August 11.

Tens of thousands of police and troops are on Olympics security duties. Some 250,000 people missed their train on Friday, according to SNCF, because of the attacks that dozens of investigators are now working on.