Materials placed on tracks in Netherlands, suspected sabotage (Representative image)
One train struck material left on the line but remained on the tracks, with no injuries reported, the centre said.
“Materials deliberately placed on the tracks have been found at several locations,” ProRail said, adding that the objects had caused track-circuit failures. The materials included pipes and other objects that were deliberately fixed to or placed on railway tracks, according to Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security (CSCIS).
The disruption came as the Dutch government was due to present its annual budget to parliament, an event that draws thousands of people to The Hague to watch the royal family travel through the city in horse-drawn carriages. The incidents were reported along the Utrecht-Arnhem, Amersfoort-Deventer and Gouda-Oudewater routes.
The interference affected signalling and safety systems as well as some railway crossings, disrupting both train and road traffic, according to CSCIS, the Ukrainian government body that monitors and counters disinformation and information threats. National railway operator NS said services around the central cities of Zwolle, Deventer and Amersfoort were severely affected. The disruption was so extensive that the operator said it could not provide enough replacement buses for stranded passengers. Investigators were also examining whether the coordinated incidents could be connected to Prinsjesdag, the annual opening of the Dutch parliamentary year, according to CSCIS.
It was not immediately clear when services would return to normal.