Marni Rose McFall is a Newsweek reporter based in London Marni joined Newsweek in 2024 from Frasers Group and had previously written for Cosmopolitan She is a graduate of The University of Edinburgh You can get in touch with Marni by emailing m.mcfall@newsweek.com either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content An activist from the "ultra-left" movement was arrested at the weekend after "sabotage" on France's railway lines The person was detained on July 28 at an SNCF site in Oissel, Le Figaro reported. SNCF is the state-owned railway company. Further details have since emerged, with the BBC saying the suspect in a 28-year-old man but that hasn't yet been confirmed by the authorities The network was targeted by vandals on July 26, ahead of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics. Further incidents involved France's telecommunications lines in the early hours of July 29 Newsweek contacted the French police via email for comment Hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, France's high-speed rail network was targeted by vandals This caused significant disruption in northern eastern and western France and to the Eurostar service SNCF said it was "the victim of several simultaneous malicious acts," in a statement shared with Newsweek The rail sabotage impacted an estimated 250,000 passengers on July 26 and affected hundreds of thousands more over the weekend "Normal traffic resumption is confirmed for Monday morning," the rail company also said in its statement the suspect is a 28-year-old man and he is currently being questioned by police in the city of Rouen The BBC reported that the "ultra-left militant" was arrested in northwest France on Sunday He was found behaving suspiciously near the railway site Le Figaro reported that the suspect had "access keys to technical premises of the SNCF," "wire cutters," a "set of universal keys" and ultra-left literature in his car The book he had was: "The vertigo of the riot: from the Zad to the Yellow Vests." Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin said the services had "identified a certain number of profiles who could have committed the sabotage committed on the night of Thursday to Friday against SNCF TGV Lines," as per Le Figaro Darmanin stressed that the sabotage was "the traditional mode of action of the ultra-left." He also stated that: "The question is whether they were manipulated or whether it was for their own benefit," as per Le Figaro Darmanin said that there was "likely a political claim," according to the BBC He also said that the locations of the arson attacks were "extremely specific." In addition to the damage to the train lines French media also reported that fiber-optic cables were found cut in six locations across France overnight from July 28-29 This caused isolated outages on some phone lines The BBC reported that it's unclear whether there are links between the telecoms vandalism and the sabotage on the rail network It hasn't been confirmed whether the person in custody has any connection with the suspected arson attacks on the French railway lines no group has claimed responsibility either for the sabotage on the trains or the telephone vandalism Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about the Olympics? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair Hold us accountable and submit your rating of this article on the meter. Newsletters in your inbox See all France was on Monday probing the possible involvement of ultra-left movements in attacks that paralysed the rail network at the start of the Olympic Games as new sabotage acts affected fibre optic cables in several areas With the government vigilant over the risk of more such attacks during the Games French authorities on Sunday arrested an activist from an ultra-left movement at a site belonging to national rail operator SNCF Police said the cables of several telecoms 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 You would have to use an axe or a grinder." But the group minimised the impact of any disruption saying that in the end only 10,000 fixed line customers had been affected Paris chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau said police had opened a second criminal probe into the fibre optic cable incidents saying the perpetrators were 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" He was placed in police custody for questioning in Rouen But there was no immediate link between him and the investigation into the attacks early Friday Unknown individuals had in the early hours of Friday attacked three different railway installations in different parts of France causing days of chaos on the high-speed network as Paris hosts the 2024 Olympic Games Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 television that the authorities were looking into the theory that "ultra-left" movements were behind the attacks French services have "identified a certain number of profiles that could have committed" the sabotage acts He said the "attacks were very intentional and well targeted" Darmanin added that this was "the traditional mode of operation of the ultra-left" "The question is whether they were manipulated by other people or is it for their own account," he added "We are progressing well and we will find them." He said the saboteurs clearly had "information" about the installations but declined to comment when asked if he believed they had come from within the SNCF An email purporting to claim the attacks was received at the weekend by several French media outlets using rhetoric typical of militant groups and slamming the Olympics as a "celebration of nationalism" But it contained no detail as to how the attacks were carried out and police sources who spoke to AFP cautioned against seeing the email as a claim of responsibility Darmanin said the message could have been "opportunist" By Monday morning all high-speed trains in France were running normally again after railway engineers worked round the clock to repair the damage The cost of the sabotage will "very probably" amount to millions of euros including "commercial losses" and "repair costs" fibre optic cables running near the tracks and ensuring the transmission of safety information for drivers were cut and set on fire on three of the main high-speed lines It is not yet clear if police are linking the sabotage attacks on the telecommunications and rail cables A source close to the case told AFP nobody had yet said they were responsible for the telecoms sabotage said: "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." "We've already seen it with what happened to the SNCF," he said You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed.