THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 25, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
Le Monde
Le Monde
30 Jul 2024


Images Le Monde.fr

Three days after a series of acts of sabotage on high-speed train (TGV) lines, fiber optic infrastructures were targeted in nine departments on the night of Sunday, July 28. According to the French Telecoms Federation (FFT), the attacks occurred "at roughly the same time." On Monday afternoon, the Paris prosecutor's office announced that it was taking over part of the investigation under the national jurisdiction for combating organized crime, after transferring responsibility to it from four regional prosecutor's offices. According to FFT, the French Defense Electronic Communications Commission will also take part in the investigation.

These acts of vandalism have mainly affected the long-distance network for SFR – one of the two largest telecom operators in France, along with that of Orange – as one of its spokespersons told Le Monde. Other operators have reported difficulties, as this infrastructure is leased by other groups. The Orange network, provider for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was not affected, a spokesperson said. Despite the severed cables, internet traffic was not impacted, with operators using alternative routes.

On the high-speed lines, where sabotage on Thursday night caused major disruption in the middle of a major summer holiday weekend and on the day of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the situation was back to normal on Monday. Outgoing Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete praised national rail operator SNCF's "exceptional mobilization," pointing out that "repairs of this nature [usually] take a week." Fiber-optic cables used to transmit safety information to drivers were cut and set on fire at Courtalain, before the junction that takes trains either to Bordeaux or to Brittany; at Croisilles, on the northern axis; and at Pagny-sur-Moselle, where a connection is made to Strasbourg and Germany, causing disruption on three of the four main high-speed routes from Paris. A fourth sabotage attempt was foiled the same night by railway workers carrying out maintenance operations.

Images Le Monde.fr

On Saturday, a statement claiming responsibility for the acts of sabotage, signed by "an unexpected group," was sent to various newsrooms, without it being possible to confirm its link with the saboteurs. Its authors presented themselves as opponents of the Olympics, described as "a testing ground for police crowd management and generalized control of our movements," and of the TGV, deploring its "human, social and environmental cost." The long claim listed numerous other grievances ranging from French arms sales to the crisis in New Caledonia, via accusations of pollution at the Bou Azzer cobalt mine (Morocco).

You have 52.12% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.