French police and security services were braced for further attacks on the Olympic Games in Paris as they scrambled to identify those responsible for disrupting the country’s high-speed rail network.
In a “massive” and “co-ordinated” sabotage attack before dawn on Friday, three groups of arsonists destroyed fibre optic cables at strategic points in the countryside, bringing fast services to a near halt, including the Eurostar link with London.
The attack on the lines connecting Paris with western, northern and eastern France disrupted travel across the continent hours before the opening of the games, sparking a hunt for who was behind it.
Spy agencies across Europe were trying to ascertain whether a foreign state such as Russia was behind the sabotage, with one source saying proxy