How awful for Paris just before the opening ceremony

[Creepingivy]

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cxe24vg59lzt

Hopefully this is the last of any sabotage activity.

Just awful, I was really surprised there wasn't a thread on this already but couldn't find one

They say it was Putin, which is pretty worrying if true. Is anyone on here travelling to Paris today, who can comment on what the situation is like at St Pancras and in France? There are signifiant delays apparently with many trains cancelled.

Me too, I couldn't see anything. I pity all the people trying to get around Paris, it's difficult & busy at the best of times.

There is no Russian athletes allowed compete in any event? Is this right?

Yes, really awful. It's a truly nasty attack.

Reporters on TV this morning looked really gloomy so i'm guessing it is having a huge huge effect on everything.

Did I hear correctly that the opening ceremony would go ahead but that the qualifiers wouldn't take place this week-end.

I'm not wasting time thinking who did it but they're saying it was obviously somehow who knew the detailed technicalities of the highspeed rail system. That would suggest a government, rather than a group of people who a) knew all about the technicalities of the rail system, b) had the hatred to carry out the damage and c) be confident they wouldn't get caught. Yes, thats a government isn't it? Not a group of individuals.

It is utterly depressing. We are due to attend events at the Olympics next week but after the Hamas video threat, reports of foiled terrorist plots and now this I may well change my mind.

It’s awful but I’m not surprised. I just pray nothing awful happens, it’s not an Olympics I’d be looking to attend.

Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2, covering it right now.

Such a shame, hopefully this is the last of the disruptions.

I'm in Paris atm (volunteering at Stade de France but actually just waiting to see the torch) and the security everywhere is really tight, huge numbers of very visible police and a huge amount of not so visible security. Please don't let it put you off the fantastic Olympic experience

Just heard about this! 🙁

I read France have also won the bid to host the 2030 winter Olympics

I think the "I wouldn't attend" sentiment around the threat of terrorism is really sad. The centre of Paris is probably the safest place to be with all the troops and other measures. That is probably why these attacks on the TGV network have not been in central Paris.

Terrorism wins if we're too frightened to carry on with our plans.

It's not.

They've just evacuated a Paris airport, due to a security threat.

Oh I thought that was Basel-Mulhouse, is there a Paris evacuation too?

Some are, if they've not vocally supported the war. They won't compete under the flag, or have anthems or walk in the opening ceremony or be counted in the medal tables. Same applies to Belarus.

This is really shocking. If Russia have been banned then it does seem likely that Putin is behind it. If it was a terrorist organisation they would have spoken up by now.

Horrible, and it puts everyone on edge. Many trips and holidays affected I'm sure too.

The only thing I can say is that as an act of sabotage/terrorism at least there was no loss of life. This might however be a new trend, to disrupt daily life without any injury to the public. Who knows?

I'm watching BFM tv live from Paris at the moment. The signal boxes were set on fire, affecting TGV all over the place. The Eurostar was mentioned too as being affected. Even if Brits are not going to the Olympics that will have a knock on effect on travel elsewhere of course.

SNCF hope to have things slowly back to some sort of schedule by 1.0c. today. That's some progress very quickly I think. But let's see.

Hamas released a video specifically threatening the Olympics and Israel have been allowed to compete so I don't think it's clear that it would have to be Putin.

No you're right! My bad

Although checking twitter there seems to be the suggestion that the Hamas video was actually put out by Russia.

Who knows. There are a lot of people riled up by Israel being allowed to compete too (think about what happened to Eden Golan at Eurovision).

@Creepingivy apparently** at least 10 of 15 Russian athletes who were allowed to compete as neutrals support the war. It's a disgrace.

I hope there are no more incidents and everyone can just enjoy the Olympic experience in Paris. I vividly remember what a fantastic atmosphere there was in London during the 2012 Olympics, both when attending events and also just being in the city on public transport and walking around.

The Russian ban isn't about the war though, I don't think.

Russia is banned from competition (and has been for a number of years) because of it's state sponsored doping programme for athletes. And then their subsequent unwillingness to be transparent and work with the authorities to clean up