Internet and phone services in France were targeted by saboteurs on Sunday night, cutting off long-distance networks across the country. The attack on French communications infrastructure came just two days after arsonists set fire to multiple high-speed rail lines around the country ahead of the Paris Olympics, with a far-left activist group being blamed for the latter incident.
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According to French telecoms officials, fiber optic cables were simultaneously cut in six regions across France in a coordinated act of vandalism, affecting landline phones and internet connection in Bouches-du-Rhône, Aude, Hérault, Drôme in the south and Oise and Meuse in the north. Paris itself was unaffected, and service was rerouted to the affected areas by Monday afternoon.
Marina Ferrari, France’s Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms,” calling them “cowardly and irresponsible acts.”
Des dégradations commises dans plusieurs départements cette nuit ont affecté nos opérateurs de télécommunications.
Elles ont des conséquences, localisées, sur l’accès à la fibre, la téléphonie fixe et la téléphonie mobile.
Sous ma supervision, le centre pour les communications…
— Marina Ferrari (@Marina_Ferrari) July 29, 2024
On Friday, a separate incident of vandalism shut down train travel for upwards of 800,000 commuters, affecting Olympic athletes traveling to Paris for the Games. On Sunday, just before the telecoms outage, an activist from an ultra-left movement was arrested in connection with the railway sabotage.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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