(26 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 26 July 2024
1.Various of passengers waiting at Gare de Montparnasse station
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Angela Charlton, Associated Press:
"Arson attacks have hit France’s rail network just hours before it hosts the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics. It is not clear who’s behind these attacks, but they’ve affected nearly a million people already. This has paralyzed traffic to Paris and as far away as London and Belgium."
3. Various of passengers waiting
4. Close of train information screens showing delays
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Angela Charlton, Associated Press:
"This comes hours before France is hosting the opening ceremony of these Paris Olympics. This is a high risk, high ambition opening ceremony. For the first time, it’s not in a stadium. It is on the Seine river, in the open air. There are half a million people expected to be watching outside, and there are already tens of thousands of police, soldiers and other security agents mobilized to protect this very big event."
6. Various of passengers looking at screen
7. Police patrolling stations
8.SOUNDBITE (English) Angela Charlton, Associated Press:
"France has been prepared for potential extremist attacks, cyber-attacks or other disruptions related to the games. Now these train incidents today, police are investigating who’s behind them and whether there’s a direct link to the games. But it has already disrupted this very, very important opening day for France."
9. Passengers listening to announcement
STORYLINE:
High-speed trains around France were hit by several “malicious acts” on Friday that heavily disrupted traffic on the day of the high-risk opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, according to the national rail company SNCF.
Passengers at Paris’s Montparnasse train station were waiting for further announcements after trains got cancelled.
Travel to and from London beneath the English Channel, to neighboring Belgium, and across the west, north and east of France were affected by what SNCF called a series of coordinated overnight incidents.
Government officials denounced the incidents hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which are happening around France, though there was no immediate sign of a link to the Games.
National police said authorities are investigating what happened.
French media reported a big fire on a busy western route.
Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said in a post on X that he “firmly condemns these criminal incidents,” and that SNCF is working to restore traffic.
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