French prosecutors in Grenoble have identified far-left extremists as the most likely suspects in the sabotage of an electrical line on a bridge that was damaged by arson last month.
The arson attack on the Brignoud bridge, which crosses the Isère river near the city of Grenoble, took place last month in April and led to over 5,500 people in the nearby commune of Villard-Bonnot going without power as the bridge contained electrical power lines that were damaged as a result of the fire.
There was some initial speculation that far-left extremists were connected to the attack after an anarchist symbol was found at the scene of another attack on a nearby high voltage substation just days prior. Now the prosecutor’s office of Grenoble has formally stated that far-left extremists are the most likely suspects in the case, the newspaper Le Parisien reports.
Internet Outage in French Cities After Apparent Coordinated Sabotage Campaign, Fibre Optic Lines Cuthttps://t.co/uo3CkXhbLh
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 28, 2022
The fire damage has rendered the bridge unstable for automobile traffic and is unlikely to reopen until November, impacting an estimated 27,000 daily commuters who are forced to find alternate ways to cross the Isère river. It remains open to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Camille, a local who uses the bridge, says she now walks across and meets a friend in a car to complete her commute.
“It’s the best solution I’ve found. My travel time has gone from 5 minutes to half an hour, or even an hour in the morning and evening, when the deviations are saturated by people who, like me, take their car to work. The double penalty with the explosion of the price of gasoline,” Camille, who works as an engineer in Crolles, said.
Notably, the attack also impacted local factories producing semiconductors, such as Soitec, which was forced to temporarily close its factory due to the bridge arson.
Far-left French anarchists have taken credit for two arson attacks on a telecommunications company in the latest act of infrastructure sabotage claimed by far-left militants. https://t.co/EApl0HfoJU
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 27, 2021
“The incidents of the last two days have occurred outside [semiconductor] companies. Everyone recognizes that we are a strategic industry for the country but we see that today malicious acts, and attacks can target this industry, so we need a collective reflection to achieve the security of the entire supply chain of industrial sites,” Thomas Piliszczuk, Soitec’s executive vice president for global business, said.
If far-left extremists are found to be behind the attack, it would be just the latest act of sabotage connected to anarchist extremist activity, some of which extremists have taken credit for themselves.
Last week, fibre optic lines were cut in what were also believed to be coordinated attacks on French infrastructure, leading to large internet outages and connectivity problems in wide areas of the country.
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