The Olympic Games have not yet officially opened, and the incidents have already begun. Ahead of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris, vandals attacked France's high-speed train network in a series of coordinated actions that caused major disruptions on some of the country's busiest rail lines.
State rail operator SNCF said arsonists targeted installations along lines linking Paris to cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east.
They urged all passengers to postpone their journeys. Repairs are underway, but traffic will be seriously disrupted at least until the end of the weekend. The trains return to their starting points.
"Last night the SNCF was the victim of several acts of vandalism on high-speed lines along the Atlantic, in the north and east." The fires were intentionally set to damage our installations," the statement said.
Paris 2024 said it was working closely with SNCF to assess the situation. So far, no one has claimed responsibility and there is no indication whether the action was politically motivated. Transport Minister Patrice Vergriet described the acts as criminal.
The head of the Paris police said he is further increasing security at the capital's main stations. Sports Minister Amelie Ouder-Castre condemned the "vandalism".
"It's absolutely horrible," she told BFMTV. "Targeting the Games is targeting France".
Apart from the railway problems, France also faces other security threats. The international airport near the French city of Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg was evacuated today and closed for security reasons, said the international airport, which is located 20 kilometers southeast of the French city of Mulhouse and 3,5 kilometers northwest of Basel in Switzerland.
After a few hours, the airport was opened, and the French police announced that the reason for the evacuation was a bomb threat, the BBC reports.
Opening ceremony in the shadow of fear of terrorism
Security threats have led to a sense of apprehension ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony in the heart of Paris later on Friday. The choice of sporting events as a target follows the logic of terrorism itself. After all, longtime terrorism expert Brian Michael Jenkins famously said that "terrorism is theater." Targeting the most prominent sporting event, the Olympics, is an act that terrorists know could simultaneously raise their profile and deal a lasting psychological blow to France.
France is therefore conducting an unprecedented peacetime security operation, with more than 45.000 police, 10.000 soldiers and 2000 private security agents securing the opening ceremony. Snipers will be on the rooftops and drones will keep watch from the air.
Around 15 million tourists are expected to flock to the City of Light in the next few weeks.
Photo: AP Photo/Luca BrunoPolice patrols in Paris
There have already been arrests.
On Tuesday, a 40-year-old Russian-born man was arrested and detained on suspicion of collaborating with foreign powers "to incite enmity in France" - a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years, prosecutors in Paris told Politico.
In June, the Kremlin was accused of intensifying a hybrid destabilization campaign aimed at France and the Olympics, a charge Moscow denies.
Back in March, the organizers of the Olympics reduced the number of visitors to the opening ceremony due to fears of an Islamist terrorist attack. A few weeks later, two people were arrested on charges of planning an attack on the Olympics, French police said.
History of terrorist attacks
The French still remember the November 13, 2015, attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, in which 131 civilians were killed. However, the concert hall was not the only cultural manifestation and easy target that Islamic State operatives attacked that November 13, as two suicide bombers detonated explosives in front of the Stade de France stadium during a football match between France and Germany - the host of the European Football Championship and the Olympics games this summer.
In the past nine years since the Bataclan attack, France has been the leading victim of jihadist terrorism in the West. The country has seen more than 40 militant Islamist attacks, including large-scale, complex attacks carried out by well-trained operatives. Moreover, France has a vibrant domestic extremist environment and a large number of returnees from Syria and Iraq.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, in recent months, policymakers and terrorism experts across the Western world have been sounding the alarm over a resurgence of terrorist threats, with some even comparing the situation to the build-up of warnings before 11/XNUMX.
Previous incidents at the Olympic Games
Sports events, especially the Olympic Games, have been the target of groups and individuals motivated by various ideologies for decades. The "Black September" attack in Munich in 1972, when Palestinian militants killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, is world-famous. In 1996, a terrorist named Eric Robert Rudolph, motivated by far-right ideology, carried out a series of bombings at the Atlanta Olympics, directly killing one person and injuring more than 100 others.
Terrorists and violent extremists have also planned and threatened attacks on other sporting events in recent years. This includes the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and the 2021 European Championship held in 11 countries.
