French sports minister condemns rail sabotage before Olympics

"Sabotage" that has hobbled France's high-speed TGV train network hours ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony was an attack on "the athletes' Games", Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said Friday.

"These Games are for the athletes who have been dreaming of them for years and fighting for the holy grail of standing on the podium -- and someone's sabotaging that for them," Oudea-Castera told broadcaster BFMTV, adding the Olympics "have been prepared for so carefully by hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens for almost 10 years".

France's high-speed rail network was hit by arson attacks that disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers on Friday, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

"Arson attacks were started to damage our facilities," it said, adding that traffic on the affected lines was "heavily disrupted" and the situation would last through the weekend as repairs are conducted.

SNCF chief executive Jean-Pierre Farandou said 800,000 passengers were affected.

Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete called the attacks an "outrageous criminal act" that would have "very serious consequences" for rail traffic throughout the weekend.

He said connections towards northern, eastern and northwestern France would be halved.

SNCF said trains were being diverted to different tracks "but we will have to cancel a large number of them".