Sabotage hits France’s rail lines as Olympics begin

PARIS—France’s rail network was the target of a massive act of sabotage Friday, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, officials said, bringing service on several high-speed rail lines to a halt in outages that are expected to last for days.

Officials said fires were set at around 4 a.m. local time at several places around the country’s rail network. The damage is disrupting service on the lines which bring traffic to Paris from the north, the southwest and east. In some spots, cables were cut and then burned, requiring laborious repairs.

“The places were chosen specifically to have the heaviest impact,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, president of the SNCF, France’s state rail company. “This is a sad day.”

The sabotage risks preventing thousands of people from attending the opening ceremony, which is set to start at 1:30 p.m. ET. A parade of boats carrying athletes from more than 190 nations will sail down the Seine, through the heart of Paris. French authorities were expecting more than 300,000 people for the event, in what would be the biggest attendance at an opening ceremony in Olympics history.

At least a hundred world leaders are expected to attend the ceremony, ranging from first lady Jill Biden to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

France has been bracing for acts of state-sponsored sabotage by adversaries such as Russia or Iran during the games. The government has rolled out the largest peacetime security operation in its history, with more than 70,000 police, soldiers and security guards protecting the events.

Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com