Person allegedly involved in railway sabotage detained in France
Interior Minister said the saboteurs' methods were consistent with those of left-wing extremists, but they could have been manipulated
In France, law enforcement officers arrested an activist of the far-left movement at a facility belonging to the SNCF railway company. He is suspected of acts of sabotage that paralysed the network a few days ago.
Source. This was reported by the BBC with reference to French media.
The man was detained in Oissel in northern France on Sunday. He had keys to SNCF's technical facilities, tools and literature related to far-left movements, police sources said.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the saboteurs' methods were consistent with left-wing extremists.
‘These are traditional methods of the far left, and in the course of identifying those involved, some people may be linked to these movements, but I will wait until all the elements of the investigation come in,’ the minister told France 2 TV channel, referring to the acts of sabotage that significantly hampered traffic before the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
Vandals used explosives to start a fire that damaged signal cabinets on lines connecting Paris to cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another act of sabotage on the Paris-Marseille line was prevented.
However, Darmanen warned against jumping to conclusions, as the perpetrators could have been manipulated.
The detainee is currently being questioned by French police.
The minister noted that 50 drones, 250 railway security agents and 1,000 maintenance workers were deployed to strengthen security on the 28,000km high-speed train network.
Darmanen also confirmed that authorities have arrested 45 members of the radical climate group Extinction Rebellion. They were planning direct action to protest the social and environmental impacts of the Olympics.
Meanwhile, new sabotage attacks on fibre optic cables were carried out in several parts of France on Monday. Telecommunication facilities owned by the French company SFR were vandalised on Monday night, according to the French newspaper Le Parisien.
Le Parisien reports that cables in electrical cabinets were cut in the south of France, as well as facilities in the Meuse region near Luxembourg and in the Oise area near Paris.
It is not yet known whether there is a connection between the vandalism of telecommunications facilities and last week's sabotage of the railway network.
Background. As a reminder, France reported a large-scale railway sabotage on the opening day of the Olympics. The locations of the arson attacks correspond to railway junctions, said the president of railway operator SNCF.
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