French internet cables sabotaged, police say

Fibre-optic cables in several parts of France have been “sabotaged,” police said on Monday, three days after the rail system was hit by attacks that halted trains across the country.

Friday’s disruption on the rail network came as Paris celebrated the opening of the Olympic Games, and wrecked the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people.

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Police said the cables of several telecom operators had been sabotaged in six areas of France overnight from Sunday into Monday but Paris was not affected.

AFP confirmed with major carriers, including Free and SFR that they had been affected, although no major disruptions had yet been reported.

“It’s vandalism,” said Nicolas Chatin, spokesman for SFR, one of France’s four biggest operators.

“Large sections of cables were cut. You would have to use an axe or a grinder,” he told AFP.

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A source close to the case told AFP that nobody had yet said they were responsible for the telecom sabotage.

“What frankly makes us furious is that we feel the state has not realised the importance of these potential attacks on France’s strategic infrastructure,” said Nicolas Guillaume of Netalis, a specialised operator.

“We’ve already seen it with what happened to (rail operator) SNCF.”

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It is not yet clear if police are linking the two sets of sabotage attacks.

Several politicians have hinted that “ultra-left” activists might be behind Friday’s attacks on the rail network but nothing has been confirmed.