Olympic Hurdles

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France’s telecom networks experienced a series of outages Monday after vandals targeted telecommunication installations across the country, the latest incident affecting the nation as it hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Sky News reported.

Officials said both landline and mobile services were impacted in the overnight attacks, affecting around 11,000 customers.

French media reported Monday that the vandalism targeted installations belonging to three companies, primarily impacting fixed-line services. At least six of France’s administrative departments were affected, including the region around Marseille, which is hosting Olympic football and sailing competitions.

The outage comes a day after authorities arrested a far-left activist in the northwestern region of Normandy in connection with a series of attacks on France’s high-speed train network ahead of the Olympic Games which officially began Friday.

Vandals used explosive devices to set fires that damaged signal boxes along lines connecting Paris with Lille, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg, which authorities called coordinated sabotage.

The disruption left hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded, with traffic only returning to normal Monday morning.

Even so, authorities have not confirmed if the telecoms vandalism was related to the railway attacks.

Paris is hosting the Summer Olympic Games for the next two weeks.

The opening ceremony saw 300,000 spectators along the capital’s River Seine, featuring an athletes’ parade through Paris on barges and riverboats. The government deployed 45,000 police officers, 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 private security agents to secure the event.

Meanwhile, Olympics organizers had to cancel Monday’s swimming training for triathletes over pollution in the Seine.

The Paris 2024 and World Triathlon issued a statement saying tests showed the quality of the water was below acceptable standards, the BBC wrote.

The cancelation comes despite years of efforts by French officials to clean up the picturesque waterway that had been considered unsafe for swimming about a century ago.

Earlier tests in July showed the Seine was clean enough for swimming. But heavy rain over the weekend resulted in untreated sewage entering the river and degrading water quality.

Even so, organizers are optimistic that water quality will improve before the start of the triathlon competitions Tuesday.