Originally published on November 7, 2013

France's national state-owned railway company, the SNCF, announced on Tuesday that it started testing a drone to monitor its high-speed rail network in an effort to deter costly copper cable theft.

The drone, which measures about a metre wide, was launched between Gard and Vaucluse in southern France. The aircraft, which is controlled with a simple joystick and transmits images in real time, is equipped with two cameras, one high-definition and the other wide-angle.

The SNCF plans to roll out the drones across the country next year. The company says it loses 30 million euros a year to copper theft, a figure that does not include service interruptions.

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