French official says 'ultra-left activist' arrested for breaking into railway site amid train 'sabotage' probe

Fox News’ Stephanie Bennett reports on several rail attacks in France and their impact on the Olympic Games.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Monday that an "ultra-left activist" has been arrested after allegedly breaking into a railway site, as a national investigation continues into last week’s arson attacks on train networks that reportedly disrupted travel for nearly a million passengers in France hours before the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony. 

In a post on X, Darmanin said the suspect was arrested on Sunday at a railway site in the Seine-Maritime region of western France. 

The post cited the "sabotage" of the network of France’s national railway company, SNCF, that happened overnight Thursday into Friday before the opening of the Paris Olympics. The Paris prosecutor's office, however, said the unidentified man taken into custody at an SNCF site near the city of Rouen on Sunday could not immediately be linked to the widespread arson attacks at this time, The Associated Press reported. 

The interior minister shared a report by the French daily morning newspaper Le Figaro in announcing the arrest. A police source who spoke to Agence France-Presse revealed an "activist from the far-left movement" was taken into custody on Sunday at an SNCF site in Oissel (Seine-Maritime), according to the newspaper. 

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Soldiers patrol outside Gare du Nord train station at the Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

In the man’s vehicle, authorities found "access keys to SNCF technical premises," "cutting pliers," a "set of universal keys," and literature related to the far left, including a copy of