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Traffic on French High-Speed Trains Gradually Improving after Sabotage

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
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Traffic on French High-Speed Trains Gradually Improving after Sabotage

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)

Traffic on France's TGV high-speed trains was gradually returning to normal on Saturday after engineers worked overnight repairing sabotaged signal stations and cables that caused travel chaos on Friday, the opening day of the Paris Olympic Games.

In Friday's pre-dawn attacks on the high-speed rail network vandals damaged infrastructure along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled, French rail operator SNCF said.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

"On the Eastern high-speed line, traffic resumed normally this morning at 6:30 a.m. while on the North, Brittany and South-West high-speed lines, 7 out of 10 trains on average will run with delays of 1 to 2 hours," SNCF said in a statement on Saturday morning.

"At this stage, traffic will remain disrupted on Sunday on the North axis and should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns," it added.

SNCF reiterated that transport plans for teams competing in the Olympics would be guaranteed.

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No Repeat of Jerusalem Incident Will Be Accepted, France Says

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
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No Repeat of Jerusalem Incident Will Be Accepted, France Says

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)

A repeat of an incident in Jerusalem that saw armed Israeli security forces entering a property administered by France must never happen again, France's foreign minister said ahead of summoning Israel's envoy on Tuesday.

Two French security officials with diplomatic status were briefly detained on Nov. 7 after Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the compound of the Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives.

The site, one of four administered by France in Jerusalem, is under Paris' responsibility and it not the first time that problems have arisen over France's historic holdings in the Holy City.

"It is an opportunity for France to reiterate that it will not tolerate Israeli armed forces entering these areas, for which it (France) is responsible, for which it ensures protection," Barrot told France 24 television when asked what the ambassador would be told.

"And to strongly reaffirm that this incident must never happen again, meaning that Israeli forces enter armed and without authorization."

Israel's ambassador is due to meet Barrot's chief of staff at the foreign ministry on Tuesday.

Israel's foreign ministry has said that every visiting foreign leader is accompanied by its security personnel, a point that had been "clarified in advance in the preparatory dialogue with the French Embassy in Israel".

Diplomatic relations between France and Israel have worsened since President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to the supply to Israel of offensive weapons used in Gaza.

The French government also attempted to ban Israeli weapons' firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris and has become increasingly uneasy over Israel's conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.