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00:00In the early hours of Friday morning, SNCF maintenance workers made a call to local police.
00:06They had spotted a group of intruders near the railway tracks in a small French village.
00:11The intruders scattered, and within hours it emerged that this was just one of several
00:16malicious arson attacks on the French train network overnight,
00:20paralysing transport on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony.
00:25Officials described their actions as criminal, and an investigation was immediately launched.
00:31We can think that the attack was premeditated, calculated, coordinated.
00:36Yes, I think they really had the intention to harm, and to seriously harm,
00:40since the area where these fires were caused corresponds to the bifurcations.
00:44No immediate responsibility was taken for the acts, and the motive remains unknown.
00:49The Paris prosecutor's office said the crime for the deterioration of property
00:53that threatens the fundamental interests of the nation could carry a 15-year prison sentence
00:58and fines of 225,000 euros.
01:02If it's by dangerous means in an organised group, it could land an extra five years.
01:08The arsonists successfully targeted fibre-optic cables in signal boxes
01:13on the eastern, Atlantic and northern lines at key points around the capital.
01:18A mayor in the Pas-de-Calais region described their methods.
01:23They lifted the plates using different techniques and equipment,
01:26because you can't do that by hand, and then they threw a flammable liquid on the cables.
01:31There were cables in the gutters that were burnt, so they cut them.
01:35Engineers worked throughout Friday night to repair the sabotaged sites,
01:39and by Saturday, train traffic was gradually improving.
01:43SNCF said they would notify travellers by SMS if there were disruptions to their service.