Free, Bouygues and SFR were among those affected, police sources said on Monday. Six departments in the southwest, east and north of the country were affected by these “acts of sabotage” – but not the capital Paris, where the Olympic Games are currently taking place.
According to media reports, there was vandalism of infrastructure in the south of the country, in the Meuse region near Luxembourg and in the Oise region near Paris. Affected companies such as SFR and Bouygues were initially unavailable for comment. Overall, there were problems in six of the 101 French departments.
France’s acting Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Marina Ferrari, wrote on X that the damage caused overnight had affected telecommunications providers. According to the Secretary of State, access to cable, landlines and mobile networks was affected locally. Work was underway to fully restore services. Ferrari wrote: “I strongly condemn these cowardly and irresponsible acts.”
Parts of rail traffic paralyzed
The newspaper “Le Parisien” reported that the providers Bouygues, Free and SFR were affected. SFR reported vandalism in the six areas between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Cables were cut. This affected the landline and mobile networks – including those of foreign providers who used the SFR network. According to the newspaper, it is still unclear how many people were affected by the incident. No one has yet taken responsibility for the damage.
Already on Friday, the day of the opening of the Olympic Games, acts of sabotage on fiber optic cables had paralyzed large parts of French rail traffic. Hundreds of thousands of travelers were affected, including some athletes who were unable to arrive in time for the opening ceremony.
Over the weekend, rail traffic in France gradually returned to normal. On Monday morning, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete announced that all trains were running “normally” again. On Monday, police sources said that a left-wing extremist had been arrested on French railway premises.
This article was updated at 11:56 am.
