Around 7,000 passengers were affected when the high-speed rail link between Barcelona and Madrid had to be suspended for four hours on Thursday morning.

The incident, which affected over 20 trains carrying around 7,000 people, happened at around 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) after the fiber optic wire was taken from the tracks of the AVE express trains.

Catalan Police (Mossos d'Esquadra) reported that the cable was cut in four places, (two on each of the two of the parallel rails) close to the station of La Granada, close to Barcelona.

Although early hypothesis pointed to thieves stealing the valuable wire, the Mossos de Esquadra now believe the cuts were an act of deliberate sabotage on the line given that the wire which was taken had no resale value.

ADIF, the company which runs the infrastructure of the Spanish railway network, released a communique explaining that the loss of the wires "affected traffic management systems" and meaning all trains in between the stations of Camp de Tarragona and the French border had to stop "for security reasons."

The fiber optic cable is vital as it carries communications from each train on the line to security systems and the control center in Madrid.

Some AVE trains between Girona and Barcelona were able to continue their journey as they were transferred to conventional lines, but no trains ran between Barcelona and Tarragona, which is 80 km away, until the connection was re-established at just after 11 a.m.

The resulting chaos caused the Catalan Civil Protection Agency to put its protocol into alert for transport emergencies in the area. Meanwhile, RENFE organized a bus service between Barcelona and Tarragona, while two trains which were paralyzed close to Barcelona had to be evacuated and a third towed back to Barcelona Sants Station. Endit

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