After the fire at a relay antenna near Toulouse, an anti-Olympic Games tag was found nearby

The Toulouse prosecutor’s office, which has opened an investigation, is examining a claim from the “ultra-left”. Thousands of people were left without telephone or internet following this fire.

An act of sabotage by an anarchist group? An investigation has been opened after the fire at a telephone relay antenna near Toulouse occurred during the night of Thursday to Friday. The Toulouse prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday July 28 that it was examining a claim “ultra-left” opposed to the Paris Olympic Games, without however excluding a possible accidental origin.

The tag “NO JO” was found near the scene of the fire, in Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, in Haute-Garonne, about fifteen kilometers south-east of Toulouse. But “It has not yet been established whether it was earlier or later [ou] went with” this fire, the prosecution said.“It is likely that a third party would have intervened, unless the technical room overheated. We don’t know anything about that yet.”he further affirmed.

With this act of vandalism, the perpetrators intend to protest against the holding of the Paris Olympics, assures France 3 Occitanie. “Behind the celebration of athletes, the bombs of world war are accumulating, behind every medal, misery and ruin,” can be read on the website of the anarchist group that claimed responsibility for the fire. According to this claim, signed “Bad players”there would not currently be any “Olympic truce”.

The Toulouse public prosecutor’s office remains cautious. “Their claims are sometimes fallacious: they attribute to themselves actions that are not theirs”he told AFP. “With what happened at the national level, we are forced to ask ourselves all the questions”noted the Toulouse prosecutor’s office, referring to the acts of sabotage of high-speed SNCF lines which took place the same night as the fire in Saint-Orens-de-Gameville.

The Haute-Garonne firefighters were called to a fire on this relay antenna, located in the suburbs of Toulouse, at 4 a.m., according to France 3, which specifies that it took “more than two hours to finish” of the fire. “The disaster impacted the cabling of three telephone operators” using the damaged relay antenna, firefighters told AFP.

The operator Free spoke on Friday, on the social network X, of “more than 2 000 fixed subscribers” who were left without services following the fire. France 3 estimates that in total, some 5,000 customers were left without telephone and even internet access.