the first images of the damage

Five acts of vandalism or attempted vandalism on the SNCF TGV network took place between 1am and 5.30am this Friday. Part of the high-speed line in Vandières (Meurthe-et-Moselle) was affected.

Open hatches and burnt buried cables: rail traffic was severely disrupted in France on Friday July 26, the official opening day of the Paris Olympic Games, following “concurrent malicious acts“, according to the SNCF, against several high-speed lines (LGV) on the
Atlantic, North and East axes.

In total, five acts of vandalism or attempted vandalism on the SNCF TGV network took place between 1am and 5:30am on Friday, franceinfo, France Inter and France Bleu Lorraine Nord learned from sources close to the case. In detail, installations were affected in Arrou, a neighbouring town of Courtalain (Eure-et-Loire), in Croisilles (Pas-de-Calais), between the Meuse TGV station and Lamorville (Meuse), as well as between Pagny-sur-Moselle and Vandières (Meurthe-et-Moselle).

Concretely, these degradations are the consequence of “fires started in electrical or signaling cabinets located at the edge of the track“, a source close to the case told franceinfo.

According to initial information obtained by France Bleu Lorraine Nord, early Friday morning, a fire affected an electrical installation on the ground in Vandières, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, between Metz and Pont-à-Mousson. A local internal source from the SNCF explains that a “cable artery” was set on fire, between Vandières and Pagny-sur-Moselle.

“It is a kind of gutter, in which all the power supply cables are buried. The malicious act took place at kilometer 264 of the TGV line, paralyzing both tracks between Strasbourg and Paris“, specify our colleagues, who reveal the first images of the damage. According to France Bleu Lorraine Nord, these cable arteries have already been targeted in the past.

Images that are reminiscent of that of the “sabotage“, in January 2023, from a signal box in Vaires-sur-Marne, in Seine-et-Marne, after the deliberate burning of electric cables.

“Our intelligence services and our law enforcement agencies are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.“, said Gabriel Attal. The Prime Minister deplored on the X network “acts of sabotage (which) were carried out, in a prepared and coordinated manner, on SNCF installations“. “The consequences for the railway network are massive and serious” he stressed.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it “takes charge of all wilful damage caused to SNCF sites“. He opens an investigation into the heads of “deterioration of property likely to harm the fundamental interests of the nation“, “damage and attempted damage by dangerous means in an organized gang“, “attacks on an automated data processing system by organized gang” And “criminal association with a view to committing these crimes and offences.”