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00:00We begin with that coordinated sabotage of France's national rail network, just hours
00:04ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony tonight in Paris.
00:08The SNCF targeted by what they've called a massive attack with overnight vandalism,
00:12including arson, targeting cable boxes and signaling systems.
00:16The seemingly coordinated attacks hit major axes to the northeast and southwest of Paris,
00:22while another was thwarted in the southeast.
00:25Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation.
00:28Some 800,000 travellers have been impacted, with the Eurostar cancelling a quarter of
00:33its trains.
00:34It comes not only as Paris hosts the Olympics, but also as people across France have been
00:38travelling for the summer holidays.
00:41Let's hear from some passengers stranded at the Gare Montparnasse here in Paris.
00:45It's a criminal act.
00:51It's the opening ceremony of the Olympics today.
00:55All the French travelling today are affected, and many tourists too.
00:59The world's eyes are on Paris right now.
01:01It's unacceptable.
01:02We've been trying to find ways to arrive at our destination.
01:11There are some ferries available until 6.30pm, so we're exploring different options.
01:18On the application it says our train is two hours late, so we're hoping it'll stay that
01:23way.
01:24If it doesn't, we'll have to take a car and drive to Spain or something.
01:28But for now, we can just keep our fingers crossed and wait.
01:33For the very latest, we can cross to the Gare Montparnasse and speak to France 24's Sophie
01:37Lamotte, who's been following the situation for us there.
01:40Sophie, what's the latest on train traffic?
01:44Absolutely.
01:47You can see behind me, we're just outside Gare Montparnasse, and the traffic is starting
01:51up again very slowly.
01:53We're seeing some movement.
01:54Essentially, the axes that are the most impacted are those towards circulating trains bound
02:01towards the southwestern part of France.
02:05We've spoken to the head of the Atlantic Railway, the person in charge of the whole western
02:11axis of the trains, who said that only one out of three trains are currently circulating
02:16throughout France, throughout that region of France.
02:19He's also expressed how sorry the SNCF was for not being up to the task.
02:25As he said, he's reminded how important of a weekend this was in terms of travels, Parisians
02:29leaving the capital, people traveling from all over France and all over Europe to get
02:34to the opening ceremony today of the Olympics, obviously.
02:38He's also said that four Olympic trains, trains carrying athletes, were impacted this morning.
02:44Two of them were able to depart, but two of them are still on shore.
02:48If these athletes are going to make it or not to the opening ceremony tonight, that's
02:54supposed to happen, take place in just a few hours.
02:57He said that hundreds of police officers, firefighters, and engineers from the SNCF are
03:02currently working to fix this breach.
03:06That's certainly a pretty major disruption.
03:08What have you been hearing from the travelers you've been speaking to?
03:12Absolutely.
03:14If you go inside the Montparnasse station just behind me, you'll hear announcements
03:19after announcements resonating through the halls with, you know, obviously announcements
03:23of trains being delayed, more trains being canceled, and hundreds if not thousands of
03:27people sitting on the ground in the station with their luggage waiting, stranded, as you've
03:33mentioned just earlier, 800,000 of them stranded.
03:36There's a real sense of frustration here in the Gare Montparnasse with Parisians leaving
03:40on holiday, some wanting to escape the chaos of the Olympics with so many tourists, millions
03:46of tourists coming to Paris.