French Anti-Terror Police Probe Rail `Sabotage`

The involvement of the anti-terrorist section does not necessarily imply that a terrorist group is suspected of causing the incidents.

French anti-terrorist police are to open an investigation into a series of incidents in which power lines of high speed TGV trains appear to have been sabotaged over the weekend, a magistrate said on Monday.

The magistrate from the Oise departement near Paris which had been handling the case said the dossier had been handed over to the Paris magistrate's office, which is due to call in its anti-terrorist section.

The involvement of the anti-terrorist section does not necessarily imply that a terrorist group is suspected of causing the incidents, which would have required expert knowledge and familiarity with the operation of the power lines.

Train drivers held a strike last week over management demands for more flexible working conditions but the head of one of the biggest rail unions rejected suggestions that disaffected rail workers may have been behind the actions.

"I don't imagine for one instant that current or former rail workers did this," he told France Inter radio. "That would be incomprehensible."

Serious delays were caused at the weekend when power was cut by metal bars hooked onto overhead electric cables.

The government and management of France's national rail operator SNCF said on Sunday that the actions, which did not threaten the safety of passengers, appear to have been coordinated acts of sabotage.

Noting that the operation would have required expert knowledge, Bernard Aubin, federal secretary of the CFTC Transports union said only a limited number of people could have carried out the action.

"It is not very likely that these offences committed at various points around the network were the work of amateurs," he said in a statement. "Only those used to working on high tension lines could do this without putting their lives at risk."

French high-speed TGV trains are usually very punctual, but they have suffered a series of incidents in recent months. Some appeared linked to infrastructure problems, but Saturday's problems were the second serious case of vandalism this month.

On Nov. 1, thousands of passengers in western France suffered long delays or cancellations when overhead power lines failed, apparently shot out by a vandal with a gun.