SNCF trains in France gradually resume after 'massive' arson attack: Chaos for 800,000 travellers

Early this morning France state-owned railway company SNCF announced that they had been "the victim of several acts of malevolence" overnight.

Fires were started along several high-speed lines causing most trains to be cancelled and chaos for 100,000s travellers on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

SNCF urged passengers not to travel to the station this morning as most trains were cancelled with many others delayed - impacting some 800,000 travellers.

This afternoon, there has been a partial resumption of services on the high-speed LGV Atlantique line and some TGVs, while the Metz-Nancy line has returned to normal traffic.

SNCF will continue to carry out emergency repairs and expects disruption to continue over the weekend.

The biggest disruption is to trains arriving or departing at Gare Montparnasse in Paris, with Paris-Tours and Paris-Le Mans halted in both directions. Disruption will continue on these routes "at least over the weekend" according to SNCF.

Services from Montparnasse on Friday will be limited between Paris and south-west France, Brittany and Pays-de-la-Loire with passengers advised to postpone their journeys if possible.

Further details are available on the SNCF website.

Eurostar journeys are set to be 1.5 hours longer today because they cannot use the high-speed line.

Eurostar posted an update on X saying, "all high-speed trains to and from Paris are being diverted via the classic line. Some trains have been cancelled, others are diverted." They directed passengers to their website to check for disruption.

Most services from Paris' Gare du Nord, one of Europe’s busiest train stations, to northern France, Belgium and the UK are delayed.

SNCF's Sud Est (South East) TGV line is not affected. Therefore