PARIS (AFP)--The French government announced Sunday it would step up surveillance of the country's rail lines after several acts of vandalism disrupted traffic of its high-speed TGV train service at the weekend.
France's interior minister had been asked to ensure "that our police officers, our gendarmes on the ground keep an eye especially fixed on surveillance of our rail lines," Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau told French radio.
His comments came a day after thousands of French rail passengers suffered long delays or cancellations in the north and east of the country after high-speed rail lines were attacked.
Vandals jammed iron bars into overhead power electricity cables in at least three separate locations, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded for hours in trains and thousands more crowded into stations trying to get on delayed trains.
Asked whether the attacks amounted to organized sabotage, SNCF rail company head Guillaume Pepy said: "We ask ourselves that question."
But a military spokesman said the gendarmes' investigation so far yielded no firm conclusions.
Railway officials said that it was the fourth time in three weeks that "malicious acts, even sabotage" had hit the railways.
The high-speed line from Paris to the north was worst hit, with Eurostar services to London and Thalys services to Brussels and northern Europe, as well as trains to northern France, badly affected.
The networks serving the east and southeast were also hit. In all, 160 services were affected with delays lasting between 10 minutes and more than four hours.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has ordered a top-level inquiry into the incidents.
Services had already been disrupted Saturday by the discovery of the mutilated body of a man on the main line to the north.
France's normally efficient and punctual rail network is a source of national pride, but in recent months it has been hit with a series of high-profile incidents, some caused by infrastructure problems but several by apparent vandalism.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 09, 2008 16:14 ET (21:14 GMT)

Publié le 09 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones