The arrest of an “ultra-left activist” followed the disruption of hundreds of thousands of travelers in France as a government official was targeted with suspected “black powder”.
(Video credit: Sky News)
As athletes, spectators and tourists gathered in Paris, France for the Olympics, a massive disruption to the state-owned national railway, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), left thousands stranded at stations rail ahead of a weekend of disruptions affecting nearly a million commuters.
Monday, Le Figaro report cited French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin detailed that an “ultra-leftist activist” had been arrested for breaking into a rail site in Rouen, as he “insisted that these sabotages were voluntary, very precise, extremely well-directed , and emphasized that it was “the traditional mode of action of the ultra-left”.
“The question is whether they were manipulated or it's for their own benefit,” the official added to France 2. “What really interested and worried us is that these are extremely specific locations that are used for communication.” .
“Clearly,” Darmanin said, “it was very well targeted, it wasn't done randomly.”
As previously discussed, a “coordinated” arson occurred before the opening ceremony when unidentified saboteurs cut signal wires and burned them.
“The sites were specifically chosen to have the greatest impact. This is a sad day,” said SNCF president Jean-Pierre Farandou. Wall Street Journal.
'Coordinated' arson attack throws wrench into opening of Paris Olympics https://t.co/ES5t3FrsoF
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) July 26, 2024
While the identity of the “far-left activist” was not released, the suspect was reported to be in possession of “several cans of spray paint,” “wire cutters,” a “set of universal keys,” and “wrenches “access to technical rooms of the SNCF”. “.
Adding to the tense situation in the Olympic host country, France 3 reported that a suspicious letter had been addressed to Darmanin and Roubaix town hall in which officers had discovered “black powder” and racial slurs.
The mail was flagged as suspicious at a sorting facility in the Côte-d'Or region of Longiv and a preliminary test suggested the substance contained a “slight positivity for the plague.”
France 3 reported, “The substance was transmitted to the Pasteur Institute, which is doing new analyzes to confirm or not these results. Results that the Côte-d'Or prefecture wanted to temper this Saturday afternoon: 'It could be a false positive', he specified.
Meanwhile, as damage to French infrastructure extends beyond railways to telecommunications, the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Marina Ferrari, released a statement on the impact and efforts to resolve the problems: “Under my supervision, the Defense Electronic Communications Center is cooperating with operators until communications and services are fully restored.”
“I condemn in the strongest terms these cowardly and irresponsible acts. Thanks to the teams mobilized this morning to make repairs and put the damaged places into service”, he added.
The damage done to several departments last night affected our telecom operators.
They have localized consequences on access to fibre, fixed telephony and mobile telephony.
Under my supervision, the communications center…
— Marina Ferrari (@Marina_Ferrari) July 29, 2024
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