Cable theft along railway lines in Spain led to severe delays for the country's rail network this week.

Spain's transport minister called the theft of the vital signaling cable "an act of serious sabotage."

Signaling cable was stolen from four locations, delaying high-speed services between Madrid and Seville on Monday (May 5).

According to the government, the travel disruption yesterday caused by theft of copper cable from five different locations in the Toledo area, south of Madrid, late on Sunday (May 4).

The disruption on Spain's railway network came a week after the country suffered a massive grid outage.

“We have suffered an act of serious sabotage on the high-speed line between Madrid and Seville," said Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente.

Puente called the theft "low-value theft," noting that it involved 150 meters of cable.

“Whoever did it knew what they were doing because there were no cameras and the financial gain is absolutely negligible compared with the enormous damage," he told a radio station in Spain.

Reuters reported that nine trains were stranded between stations, with some passengers forced to spend the night onboard.

Services were expected to return to normality yesterday (May 6).