In the dark early morning, they cut into a fence protecting the high-speed rail line outside the small town of Croisilles. Once past the fence, the culprits soldered open the metal protective cover of a culvert alongside the tracks. Then, they poured flammable liquid and set a fire, damaging about 40 cables, explained the local mayor, Gerard Due.
Arsonists did not just strike there, 169 kilometers north of Paris. About the same time, 4 a.m., they struck cables along high-speed rail lines at one site east of the capital and another to the west.
In all three cases, their targets were precise: They chose signaling stations close to where the tracks split in two directions.