Why suspicions are surrounding Left-wing radicals over France rail line attack

French intelligence sources hinted that the massive sabotage attack on rail lines leading to Paris on Friday may have been the work of Left-wing radicals.

But with no confirmed suspects, Russia was also blamed as suspicions swirled that Vladimir Putin has been yearning for a chance to humiliate Emmanuel Macron.

There are reasons to believe either may be correct.

As of Friday afternoon, with theories coming from multiple quarters and little to no hard evidence, it remained unclear who exactly the perpetrators were.

The French authorities have laid on a large, high-tech security regime to defend the Olympics, with Reaper drones in the skies and AI-powered cameras on the ground to watch for suspicious activity.

But Friday’s attack suggests they paid far less attention to key rail routes, which were sabotaged by old-fashioned arson methods rather than cyber-attacks.

The perpetrators had a good working knowledge of the railway and were most likely seeking to cause maximum disruption while avoiding any loss of human life.

There have been five incidents of damage to the SNCF rail network, all of them targeting electronic or signalling boxes. French media reports said bundles of cables in the network had been burned or severed.

The result was around 50 per cent of the trains in the north and east of France were not running as of Friday morning, while the high-speed TVG network was also paralysed. The disruption is expected to last throughout the weekend.

The attacks came in the early hours, when no trains were running on the high-speed network, and were carried out in such a way that control centres would have become immediately aware of the damage and shut down the system.

Had the perpetrators struck during the morning rush and employed acts of sabotage that could not have been so easily detected remotely – such as parking vehicles across the line – the outcome might have been very different.

France has not yet accused any group or state over the sabotage, but many will immediately point the finger at Moscow. Other possible suspects include terrorism groups, Left-wing radicals or environmental activists.

The head of SNCF has described the arsonists as a “band of lunatics” but gave no clues as to their identity. Gabriel Attal, the French prime minister, said the attacks were carried out in a “prepared and co-ordinated manner”, as he vowed to “find and punish” the saboteurs.

“We are obviously in a situation of conflict with Russia, and Russia is obviously not going to do anything, and that’s an understatement, to help these Olympic Games be a success,” suggested Jean de Gliniasty, the former French ambassador to Moscow, in an interview with French broadcaster LCI.

In April, Mr Macron, the French president, said he had “no doubt whatsoever, including in terms of information,” that Russian leaders were planning to disrupt or damage the Games.

Around the same time, an aide to Mr Macron warned: “There is a hardening from Russia, which we have been seeing for several months.”

A security source said on Friday that a “smoking gun” had not yet been discovered to establish whether the railway sabotage was the result of a Russian hybrid attack.

They added: “We do assess overall that Russian, and their supporters’, activity is rising.

“This will see an increase in both the severity and frequency of incidents in the ‘grey zone’, designed to disrupt and deter the supporters of Ukraine.”

However, a French intelligence source told AFP news agency that the sabotage was similar to previous incidents involving the far-Left. “The modus operandi – arson attacks on installations – resembles that used by the ultra-Left in the past,” the source said.

Israel, meanwhile, has blamed Iran, its arch nemesis in the Middle East, which continues to fund and support Hamas, as well as the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

“The sabotage of railway infrastructure across France ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics was planned and executed under the influence of Iran’s axis of evil and radical Islam,” said Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister.

“Based on information held by Israel, Iranians are planning terrorist attacks against the Israeli delegation and all Olympic participants. Increased preventive measures must be taken to thwart their plot,” he added.

France’s diplomatic and military support for Ukraine has put it in the crosshairs of a new Russian campaign against Europe known as “hybrid warfare,” which involves sabotage, arson, cyber-attacks and other attempts to destabilise Western democracy.

And there is already a precedent for Russia launching arson attacks on businesses and infrastructure in Europe.

In May, when a mysterious fire broke out at the Diehl arms factory in Berlin, German investigators initially ruled it an accident – despite the Diehl group being part of the supply chain that supports Ukrainian forces with weapons.

They have since received intelligence from a Nato member state which strongly suggests it was actually a Russian sabotage attack.

In the previous month, pro-Russian arsonists targeted a business with commercial links to Ukraine in east London. The British Government expelled Russia’s defence attache in response to the attack.