Fears Moscow behind French railways ‘arson assault’ forward of Olympics

Fears are mounting that Moscow may be behind a ‘massive arson attack’ which has brought chaos to France‘s rail network after an alleged Russian spy was arrested earlier this week.

Kirill Gryaznov, 40, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with working ‘with a foreign power to try and incite hostilities in France’ after being identified as working for the FSB, Vladimir Putin‘s domestic intelligence agency.

Gryaznov – who denies any wrongdoing – is said to have boasted about turning the start of the Paris Olympics into ‘an opening ceremony like no other’.

Last night, with just hours to go before the opening ceremony on the River Seine, fires were started at key installations, bringing trains to a halt and affecting around 800,00 passengers.

The Eurostar is advising passengers not to travel today after its rail services between London and Paris were disrupted by the acts of vandalism, the BBC has reported, with several trains cancelled and others diverted.

The disruption comes hours ahead of the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games – with many opening ceremony ticketholders desperately scrambling to make tonight’s show.

It was warned back in April that Moscow has made ‘thousands’ of attempts to interfere with European rail networks in a campaign to destabilise the EU and sabotage infrastructure. 

The claims were made by the Czech Republic’s transport minister Martin Kupka, who told the FT that ‘thousands of attempts to weaken our systems’ had been made since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Pictures of today’s chaos show passengers stranded in stations across Paris, as well as travelers hoping to head to the French capital from London stuck at St Pancras.

The Gare du Nord – the main Eurostar station in Paris – was hit by attacks on its rail network overnight, according to a spokesman for SNCF, France’s rail operator.

This caused the cancellation of multiple services, including ones meant to be bringing sports fans from London into the French capital. 

‘Numerous stations are affected, including Garde du Nord, with services across France cancelled or delayed,’ he said.

Thousands of people from the UK are due to be travelling to Paris by rail today, for the start of the Olympics.

There have been a series of ‘coordinated malicious acts’ said Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete, pointing to a series of fires.

They were focused on the TGV high speed train network which covers the whole of France, and which is particularly busy at this time of year.

Beyond the Olympics, Mr Vergriete said the ‘criminal actions will compromise the holiday departures of many French people.’

The first blaze was detected early on Friday morning near tracks at Courtalain, in the Eure-et-Loir department.

It caused the interruption of traffic on the hugely busy Atlantique high-speed line.

SNCF also referred to a ‘malicious act’ on the high-speed line between Lille and Paris, in the northern Arras sector.

TGV Inoui and Ouigo trains were diverted to conventional lines, causing cancellations and far longer journey times.

Crowds built up at major Paris stations such as Montparnasse, where trains to and from nearby towns such as Tours and Le Mans were all cancelled.

A spokesman for SNCF said it was the victim of ‘a massive arson attack to paralyze the TGV network’.

He said the disruption should ‘last at least the whole weekend’, and would have a knock-on effect across the network.

Criminal investigations will be opened into the attacks, but there was no initial theory as to who was behind them.

Olympic organisers have long feared acts of sabotage tagetting the multi-billion pounds games, and a vast security operation costing £350million has unfolded in Paris to try and counter threats.

The largest peacetime deployment of forces in France’s history involves some 75,000 soldiers, police and private security agents.

‘We’re focused and we’re ready,’ said General Lionel Catar, one of the military planners before the showpiece opening.

The priority is to protect some 80,000 competitors as they progress down the River Seine in dozens of barges, in front of some 350,000 spectators, and a TV audience of more than a billion.

Gérald Darmanin, France’s Interior Ministry, said ‘the terrorist threat remains high’ and that ‘a high level of vigilance’ remains essential.

Yesterday, Israel‘s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, alerted the French foreign ministry to a potential terror threat in a diplomatic note on Thursday, expressing his fear that Iran might target Israelis during the Olympic Games. 

‘We have intelligence indicating that Iranian operatives and other terrorist groups are planning to target members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists,’ Katz said in his warning, according to Israeli media. 

This comes as French cops detained an alleged jihadist over suspicions of a terror plot targeting the Olympics.

The 18-year-old man from Gironde, a region in southwest France, was arrested yesterday, with police reportedly finding evidence for him believing jihadist ideology, according to local media.

Investigators confirmed to local media that the was connected to another man, also 18, who was taken into custody on Tuesday.

The two allegedly communicated on an encrypted messaging service, where they reportedly wrote that they wanted to commit a ‘violent action’ against the Olympics soon.