France was investigating on Monday if ultra-left movements were involved in the attacks that brought down the train system before the Olympic Games, while fresh acts of sabotage damaged fibre optic connections in multiple locations.

An activist from an ultra-left outfit was detained by French authorities on Sunday at a location owned by national rail operator SNCF, as the government remained on guard against the possibility of further acts of this nature during the Games.

Police reported that during the course of Sunday and Monday night, multiple telecom operators' cables were compromised in six different regions of France; nonetheless, Paris remained unaffected.

Major carriers Free and SFR confirmed to AFP that they had been impacted, despite the fact that no significant interruptions had been observed as of yet.

Nicolas Chatin, a spokesman for SFR, one of the four largest providers in France, called it ‘vandalism’. “Large sections of cables were cut. You would have to use an axe or a grinder.”

However, the firm downplayed the significance of any outage, claiming that just 10,000 fixed-line users had actually been impacted.

The instances involving Fibre optic cables have prompted police to launch a second criminal investigation, according to Paris chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau. The offenders are allegedly suspected of "causing material damage with the intention of harming fundamental interests of the nation."

The ultra-left activist was detained at Oissel in northern France on Sunday and had access keys to SNCF technical premises, tools and literature linked to the “ultra-left”, said an anonymous police source.

The largest city of the Normandy area of France, Rouen, was where he was taken into police custody to be questioned.

However, the insider stated that there was no direct connection between him and the examination of the early Friday attacks.

Days of turmoil on the high-speed network coincided with Paris hosting the 2024 Olympic Games when unknown individuals assaulted three separate railway infrastructure in different parts of France in the early hours of Friday.

The authorities were investigating the notion that the attacks were carried out by "ultra-left" movements, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stated on France 2 television.

According to him, French intelligence services have "identified a certain number of profiles that could have committed" the acts of sabotage.

"The attacks were highly intentional and well targeted," he declared.

This was "the traditional mode of operation of the ultra-left," Darmanin continued. He said, "The question is whether they did it on their own account or were they manipulated by others." "We are making good progress, and we will locate them."

Several French media sites received an email over the weekend claiming that the attacks had occurred. The email included language common to extremist organisations and denounced the Olympics as a "celebration of nationalism."

However, it gave no explanation for how the assaults were executed, and law enforcement officials who talked with AFP advised against interpreting the email as an admission of guilt.
The message might have been "opportunist," according to Darmanin.

Railway engineers worked nonstop to fix the damage, and by Monday morning, all high-speed trains in France were operating as usual again, according to Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete.

The minister told RTL that "commercial losses" and "repair costs" are likely to total millions of euros, as a result of the sabotage. Three of the main high-speed lines in the west, north, and east of France were attacked on Friday, cutting and setting on fire Fiber optic cables that were close to the tracks and ensuring the transmission of safety information for drivers, such as signalling lights and points.

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the telecom sabotage, according to a person close to the issue who spoke with AFP.  

"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," stated fibre optic operator Nicolas Guillaume of Netalis. He remarked, "We've already seen it with what happened to the SNCF."

Image source: AP