A desperate French government said several communications lines had been the victim of “despicable” acts of vandalism in the early hours of Monday morning in cities across the country hosting the 2024 Paris Olympics, with fibre optic lines cut along with landline and mobile phone infrastructure.
The immediate scale of the impact is unclear, as is whether Olympic activities have been affected.
The vandalism came after left-wing arson attacks paralyzed train networks across France on Friday, hours before the Olympics’ opening ceremony, Breitbart News reported.
“Sabotage” strikes on France’s high-speed rail network hours before Olympics https://t.co/Av8ovpcXF0
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 26, 2024
Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Marina Ferrari said: Posts Telecommunications companies announced that they were affected by damage that occurred in multiple regions between Sunday night and Monday.
She said it had localised impacts on access to fibre optic lines, landlines and mobile phone lines.
“The damage that occurred last night in several sectors affected our telecommunications operators,” Ferrari noted, “with localized impacts on access to fibre optics, landlines and mobile phones… I strongly condemn this cowardly and irresponsible act. I thank the teams that have been mobilized this morning to carry out repairs and restore the affected sites.”
AP Reports The attacks are widespread across the country.
French police officials said at least six French administrative regions were affected, including areas around the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which will host the Olympic soccer and sailing events.
Telecommunications operators Bouygues and Free confirmed their services were affected. French media reports said lines operated by provider SFR were also affected. Free’s parent company said it was mobilizing teams to restore service.
Meanwhile, Breitbart News reported that hundreds of rail workers were working in shifts to get France’s world-famous high-speed train service out of Paris running again, which operator SNCF said it had achieved by early Monday morning.
While the government has blamed far-left anarchists for the damage, the group praised the “extraordinary mobilization” of staff who “have been working tirelessly since Friday morning” to complete the repairs to date.
