At around 1.15am, SNCF maintenance workers, conducting repairs under the moonlight, noticed an unusual group of individuals near a signal box outside the quiet village of Vergigny in the Yonne department of northern France. Concerned by the sight at such an hour, the workers approached the intruders, who fled into the darkness, prompting a call to the local police.
This sighting, coupled with the discovery of incendiary devices at various crime scenes across the French rail network, is expected to be crucial in an investigation that one Socialist senator described as an effort to “destabilize, sabotage, and challenge the image of France” just before the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris.
The arsonists’ methods seem rudimentary—starting fires to destroy fiber optic cables at signal boxes along France’s high-speed rail lines. However, the damage caused is substantial. “It’s a huge security job, it’s meticulous, it’s wire by wire that we have to repair all these cables that have been damaged and burned,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, chief executive of the SNCF.
In addition to charred cables and brief glimpses of the arsonists, another line of inquiry involves a potentially related incident in May. On May 8, an incendiary device was found on the Aix-Marseille TGV line as the Olympic flame was arriving in the region. Investigators are considering whether this was a trial run or a failed attempt to disrupt France’s Olympic preparations.
Farandou explained that the recent attacks targeted the TGV’s nerve centers outside Paris: the signal boxes at Courtalain (Atlantic high-speed line), Croisilles (LGV Nord), and Pagny-sur-Moselle (LGV Est). Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced that she would lead the investigation into “all the willful damage caused to SNCF sites.” Separate investigations have been launched by the gendarmeries of Lille, Dijon, Orléans, and Nancy.
France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, stated that security forces hope to make swift arrests. However, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal urged caution regarding speculation about the perpetrators, emphasizing that rumors and fear could be as destabilizing as the crimes themselves.
“The investigation is starting, I call on everyone to be cautious,” Attal said. “What we know, what we see, is that this operation was prepared, coordinated, that nerve centers were targeted, which shows a form of knowledge of the network to know where to strike.” Attal added that he could not “say more about the perpetrators or their motivations.”
Despite Attal’s caution, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz suggested on social media that Iranian proxies were responsible, although he provided no evidence. “The sabotage of railway infrastructure across France ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics was planned and executed under the influence of Iran’s axis of evil and radical Islam,” Katz wrote on X.
Katz claimed that Iran was planning terrorist attacks against the Israeli delegation and all Olympic participants, urging preventive measures. Another theory is that the sabotage was a Moscow-inspired attempt at destabilization. On Sunday, French police arrested Kirill Griaznov, a cordon bleu chef and reality TV star, suspected of being a member of the FSB, Russia’s security agency. He is detained on charges of plotting a “large scale” operation to destabilize France.
Security services across Europe have been on alert for Russian arson and sabotage. Recent allegations of potential Russian involvement include an arson attack in east London, the destruction of the largest shopping mall in Poland, a sabotage attempt in Bavaria, and antisemitic graffiti in Paris.
Jean de Gliniasty, France’s former ambassador to Moscow, noted that Russia might not support the success of the Olympic Games due to ongoing conflicts. A further theory suggests that the crimes bear the hallmarks of the extreme anarchist left. In 2018, eight people were prosecuted for attempting to sabotage France’s high-speed rail network a decade earlier, although they were ultimately cleared of the crime.
