Soldiers help prevent terrorist attack in French high-speed train
The suspect boarded the train in Brussels with a Kalashnikov rifle. Only 2 passengers were injured.
Euronews · PARIS · 22 AUGUST 2015 · 19:45 CET
Presidents and prime ministers have praised passengers who disarmed a suspected Islamist gunman apparently poised to commit mass murder on a high speed train with 554 passengers, travelling from Amsterdam to Paris. The suspect boarded the train in Brussels with a Kalashnikov rifle.
A Briton and three Americans, two of them soldiers, have been hailed as heroes. Spencer Stone, of the US air force, was injured when the attacker also produced a knife. The other US serviceman, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, said:
“I saw a guy entering the train with an AK 47 and a handgun and I just looked over at Spencer and said: ‘Let’s go, go!’ And he jumped up and I followed behind him by about three seconds.
“Spencer got to the guy first, grabbed the guy by the neck and I grabbed the handgun. I got the handgun away from the guy and threw it, and then I grabbed the AK 47 which was at his feet.”
The Kalashnikov-toting attacker was removed from the Amsterdam to Paris train at Arras in northern France.
COMING FROM SYRIA?
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said: “If the identity he has declared is confirmed, he is a 26-year-old man of Moroccan nationality identified by the Spanish authorities to French intelligence services in February 2014 because of his involvement with the radical Islamist movement,”
The minister did not confirm Spanish press reports that the suspect had travelled to Syria.
Published in: Evangelical Focus - europe - Soldiers help prevent terrorist attack in French high-speed train