Anti-terror police are involved in the investigation, with tests being run on samples taken by police from three burnt and damaged signal boxes, in the hopes of uncovering fingerprints of the culprits behind the attack.
In the early hours of Friday there was massive and co-ordinated sabotage of the country’s high-speed rail tracks, knocking out most lines to and from northern, eastern and western France.
Saboteurs set fires in pipes that contained signalling cables, causing damage that will now require meticulous repair, one cable at a time, according to French state-owned rail operator SNCF.
The sabotage was “a premeditated, calculated, co-ordinated attack”, said Jean-Pierre Farandou, chief executive of SNCF.