Opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games LIVE: Travel chaos plagues the Games in Paris after “sabotage” arson attack

It was a really miserable day in Paris, with a less than encouraging weather forecast that prompted Meteo France to issue a weather warning from 8pm (7pm BST) this evening. And Jack Rathborn has bad news from the Trocadero: “I’m currently hiding under a plastic sheet. It’s raining again.”

Yuck. Protective ponchos on…

Here are some photos of Paris preparing for the start of the show:

As the opening ceremony tonight is taking place on the Seine rather than in a stadium, it will be a little different: 85 boats will transport the athletes by water. But happily, we will have flag bearers in action, with each nation choosing its best and most capable representatives to carry the national colours. Here are the names you should know:

A combination of the cancellation of Eurostar trains and the no-fly zone over Paris on Friday evening has led to a rapid rise in bus prices between the UK and the French capital.

At FlixBus, the few remaining seats from London on Friday and Tuesday are being sold for over £100, with some even reaching well over £200.

The fastest journey takes around 10 hours, four times longer than the Eurostar on a normal day – but some train journeys take twice as long as scheduled.

The 12.31pm train from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord was scheduled to arrive at 3.48pm local time, but actually arrived at 6pm.

Passengers are entitled to a refund of 60 percent of the ticket price.

Three Eurostar trains from London to Paris carrying around 2,500 passengers were cancelled on Friday.

Our intrepid reporters Jack Rathborn And Jamie Braidwood have survived the chaos on the trains, the shoddy Eurostar WiFi and a sticker mishap at the accreditation desk (don’t ask…) and have just made it unscathed to the Trocadero, where today’s opening ceremony is coming to a close. “Very wet,” is Jack’s rather pessimistic first impression, although he soon wipes the liquid from his keyboard to provide a slightly more detailed update:

“It is a humid evening in Paris and the whole city is eerily quiet. An overwhelming police presence and long queues on the streets have dampened the anticipation of the Paris Games before the grand opening.

“But it has stopped raining for now and the Trocadero district offers a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower with the Olympic rings dangling over the balcony. The mood is gradually brightening.”

It’s already an hour before the event begins, with organizers making final checks on the flotilla before it’s sent down the Seine. Yes, if we ignore the fact that we’ve already had two days of thrilling competition, the Olympics are officially here, and a dazzling, glamorous water adventure past Paris’s landmarks is sure to kick things off in style.

Some 45,000 police officers, 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 private security personnel were deployed to secure the opening ceremony of the Games, one of the most ambitious opening ceremonies ever.

There will be snipers on the roofs and drones in the air.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the investigation into the arson attacks would be overseen by its organized crime unit, while the Sub-Directorate for Counterterrorism (SDAT), a branch of the criminal police that normally monitors far-left, far-right and radical environmental groups, would coordinate the investigation.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in June that there were several examples of “sabotage and arson attempts” by Russia within the alliance, but there was no evidence that Moscow could be behind Friday’s attacks in France.

Two planeloads of passengers on an Air France flight to Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airport will soon experience the eerie feeling of landing at a deserted airport. writes Simon Calder.

Paris Charles de Gaulle, the busiest airport in continental Europe, is located in the huge no-fly zone imposed to protect the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games from 6 p.m. French time until after midnight.

Airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights and built in a “buffer”, with the last scheduled landings at 5.10pm. The last landing was due to be the Air France flight from Edinburgh, which landed at 5.16pm.

But Flightradar24 reports that around the beginning of the curfew, two delayed Air France jets were given special permission to land.

One of them is an Airbus A320 flight from the Greek island of Mykonos, the other is a long-haul Boeing 777 from Seoul.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the country Intelligence services had been mobilized to find the perpetrators of “acts of sabotage,” which he described as “prepared and coordinated.”

He said the acts of sabotage and arson had “a clear goal: to block the high-speed train network.”

He added that the vandals had strategically targeted the routes from the north, east and west towards Paris.

It was a “deliberate, calculated and coordinated attack” that indicated a “desire to cause serious harm to the French population,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of SNCF.