The attack came just days after the high-speed rail network was sabotaged
Fiber-optic networks in France have been sabotaged in six areas of France, according to French police. The capital, Paris, is currently unaffected.
The sabotage occurred just three days after another deliberate attack on France’s high-speed rail system, timed to coincide with the opening of the Paris Olympic Games. Travel was disrupted for hundreds of thousands of people.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the authorities believe “ultra-left” movements could be behind the attacks.
French security services have “identified a certain number of profiles that could have committed” the sabotage acts, he said. He added that the “attacks were intentional, very precise, extremely well targeted,” and that this was “the traditional mode of operation of the ultra-left.”
“The question is whether they were manipulated or is it for their own account,” he said.
French police have already arrested an activist belonging to a leftist group. The man was arrested at Oissel in northern France and had in his possession keys to a site belonging to rail operator SNCF.
All high-speed trains in France are now running again after railway engineers worked round the clock to restore service.
