Arsonists paralyzed the Gare de l'Est train station in Paris on Tuesday. Rail traffic to Germany, among other things, was interrupted for the whole day after a fire in a signal box in the middle of the morning rush hour, as announced by the French railway SNCF. A spokeswoman said the fire in the signal box was caused by arson on power cables.

"According to initial findings, we can say that it was a deliberate fire on power cables," said the spokeswoman for the AFP news agency.

In addition to the trains to Germany, all TGV express trains, the TER regional trains and line P of the Paris local trains Transilien were also affected by the disruption. "Traffic will be interrupted for the whole day," said the SNCF spokeswoman.

Trains to eastern France depart from Gare de l'Est, one of the six major Paris train stations, as well as international connections to Germany and Luxembourg, for example. According to the SNCF, around 41 million people traveled there in 2019.