Busy Paris rail station shut after arsonists wreck cables

PARIS: A busy railway hub in Paris suffered a near-total traffic shutdown on Tuesday after unidentified vandals triggered a crippling signal malfunction by setting cables on fire in a mysterious arson attack.

Traffic from Gare de l´Est, which serves routes to Germany and eastern France, and is a key local train commuter hub for the capital´s eastern outskirts, was cut for the entire day, except for a handful of local services, operator SNCF said.

The day-long shutdown of a main Paris station was highly unusual, with its usually buzzing platforms eerily quiet Tuesday afternoon. Operations would remain deeply disrupted into the next day, with just one in three high speed TGV trains to leave Wednesday, SNCF said.

The fire broke out at a signals point before the morning rush hour. It was first thought to be an accident but subsequently turned out to be arson, it said.