Scores of people have been arrested in France for trying to disrupt the Olympic Games, Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin said on Monday.
Security forces arrested 50 people, Darmanin told the France 2 television channel.
They had wanted to carry out “sabotage actions or radical protests’’ during the first Olympic competitions but authorities prevented this, he said.
The newspaper Le Parisien reported that 45 members of the radical environmental movement Extinction Rebellion had been arrested.
They had planned actions to protest against the social and ecological consequences of the Olympics.
The newspaper Le Figaro reported that an ultra-left-wing activist was arrested on Sunday in Oissel, about 121 kilometres north-west of Paris.
The man was arrested at a French national train or SNCF location and had access keys to SNCF technical premises along with wire cutters and a set of universal keys.
The set of the universal keys in his vehicle along with literature linked to the ultra-left were recovered, the story said.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the arrest was not unconnected to the investigation into the arson attacks that disrupted traffic on Friday hours ahead of the Olympics’ opening ceremonies which affected hundreds of thousands of travellers.
Darmanin also told France 2 that his office had a clearer picture of who might have been behind those attacks.
“We have identified several profiles of individuals who may have carried out these very deliberate and highly targeted acts of sabotage,’’ he said.
Darmanin said the attacks align with “a traditional method of the far-left.’’
A letter of responsibility with references to the radical left-wing scene and criticism of the Olympic Games had been sent to several media outlets.
According to Darmanin, it must be examined whether this is authentic or if people are merely trying to claim credit for the acts.
Trains are now back to normal, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said on the channel RTL.
Whether the perpetrators received support from individuals within the SNCF remained uncertain, Darmanin announced.
Unknown persons have also damaged fibre-optic networks in parts of France overnight, but Paris, where the summer Olympics is currently being held, was not affected, French media reported on Monday, NAN reports.
