French police to investigate vandalism behind internet outage

 The Paris prosecutor's Office has opened a probe into why France's internet network was down on Wednesday. This investigation follows reports of coordinated vandalism.

The French Telecoms Federation said attacks of vandalism had impacted telecoms networks in several regions, including the Ile-de-France region around Paris, eastern France and the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Bourgogne-France-Comte regions.

According to the prosecutor's office, there will be a co-handling of the investigation by France's national intelligence services and the judicial police.

Cedric O, Minister for Digital Affairs, stated earlier on Twitter that internet cables were cut in Ile-de-France, affecting both the landline network and the mobile network. The ministry is working with operators to restore service.

Altice's French operator of telecoms SFR claimed that the group was the victim of vandalism which affected its broadband fibre optic network at 3 a.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT).

According to the spokesperson, the attacks were caused by long-distance cables connecting Paris with Lyon and Strasbourg.

These cables connect large hubs to the internet and broadband network. This could affect both direct customers as well other operators who rent SFR's network such as Free which pointed out vandalism in its tweet.

SFR declined further information about the location of the underground cables that were damaged. SFR declined to provide further details on when service will resume, or the potential number of affected customers and cities.

An industry source stated that another long-distance fibre network connection connecting Paris to Lille was also damaged.

Orange , a French competitor , which manages a large part of the country's fibre network, stated that it was not affected.

French media reported on major internet outages in large cities such as Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux. Officials said that vandalism or sabotage were suspected.

Le Parisien newspaper reported on the destruction of underground cables in France's Seine-et-Marne, Essone and Essone regions. It also stated that these cables were connecting Paris and Lyon.

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