Dutch authorities investigate possible sabotage against rail network as NATO summit opens

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Dutch authorities were investigating possible sabotage against the rail network on Tuesday after a power outage left the country’s main airport with limited train services as a two-day summit of NATO leaders was opening in the Netherlands.

Caretaker Justice Minister David van Weel told the NATO Public Forum that investigators were considering the possibility that fire in some 30 rail cables may have been set intentionally.

“It could be an activist group. It could be another state. It could be anything,” Van Weel said at a roundtable gathering.

The damage disrupted rail services and no trains were running between Schiphol Airport and the country’s capital, Amsterdam.

According to service operator ProRail, a power failure occurred early Tuesday morning in cables near the airport. An investigation revealed “considerable damage” had been done by a fire according to a statement.

Trains were running south, in the direction of The Hague, where world leaders are gathering for the start of a two-day NATO summit. Leaders arriving for the summit were not taking trains: They will be whisked in motorcades along closed-down roads from the airport to hotels and the summit venue.

ProRail said it expects normal service to be returned by early evening.

Temporary barricades and metal mesh fences surrounding the World Forum summit venue are just a fraction of the major military and police operation called Orange Shield set up to ensure the safety of the alliance’s 32 leaders.

In what they are calling the biggest security operation ever staged in the Netherlands, authorities are locking down parts of the city, closing off roads and shutting down airspace.

About 27,000 police officers – about half of the country’s entire force – will be on duty around the summit along with more than 10,000 defense personnel.

On Monday, pro-Russian hackers launched a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities and organizations linked to the NATO summit.

The National Cybersecurity Center said in a statement that many of the attacks were claimed by a pro-Russian hackers’ group known as NoName057(16) “and appear to have a pro-Russian ideological motive,” but did not elaborate.

France’s high-speed rail network was the target of sabotage last July, attacked by arsonists ahead of the opening ceremony in Paris of the Olympic Games. Targeting remote locations far from the capital, the apparently coordinated attacks sought to cut off rail routes into the capital from all directions. Fires were predominantly set in pipes containing critical signaling cables for the system known as the TGV.

___

Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed.