EUROSTAR high-speed services to and from London St Pancras have been seriously delayed following a spate of sabotage to electrified rail lines in France.

Vandals using hooks fashioned out of iron rods snagged overhead electric cables in four separate locations on three high-speed lines, the French Interior Ministry said.

Two incidents took place on the high-speed line between Paris and the northern city of Lille. More than 30 trains were held up — some up to five hours — delaying thousands of passengers.

Eurostar trains to Britain and Thalys trains to Belgium and the Netherlands had to be diverted to a conventional line.

The head of SNCF, France’s national rail operator, said it was the fourth act of "malice, even sabotage," on high-speed French rail lines in the past three weeks.
"I am very, very angry," Guillaume Pepy said on French television channel TF1, saying the railways had fallen victim to "imbecile acts."

Iron rods used for reinforcing concrete were found stuck in overhead electrical caternary on the route between Paris and Lille, SNCF said.

A week earlier, thousands of passengers in western France suffered long delays and cancellations when overhead power lines failed, apparently shot out by a vandal with a gun.