Three men who helped to disarm an attacker on a train from
Amsterdam to France, from left to right, Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos
and Chris Norman, a British man living in France, pose with medals they
received for their bravery at a restaurant in Arras, France. A fourth
man, American Spencer Stone, was wounded in the take-down and remains in
the hospital.
Pascal Rossignol/Reuters/Landov
Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET
More details are
emerging about the incident in which three Americans, including two
U.S. servicemen traveling in civilian clothes, overpowered, tackled and
subdued a Kalashnikov-wielding gunman aboard a high-speed train in
Belgium.
One of those who helped take down the assailant was
slashed multiple times with a box cutter in the scuffle and remains
hospitalized with non-life threatening wounds, according to The
Associated Press.
A 26-year-old Moroccan man, identified in
French media as Ayoub El-Khazzani, has been taken into custody.
El-Khazzani is believed to have links to Islamist radicals, has been
taken into custody.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has called the train incident a "terrorist attack."
The
high-speed train, run by Thalys, a French-Belgian government
consortium, was halted at Arras in northern France following Friday's
incident, which occurred as it was traveling near Brussels, en route
from Amsterdam to Paris.
France's Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve said President Francois Hollande thanked the men, identified
as three men traveling together, Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone;
Alek Skarlatos, a National Guardsman from Roseburg, Ore., and Anthony
Sadler, a student at Sacramento State University. Hollande spoke to them
by telephone and is expected to meet them in person sometime in the
next few days. Chris Norman, a British man living in France, also
helped,
according to the BBC.
U.S. Air Force Airman First Class Spencer Stone waves as he
departs the Clinique Lille Sud, which specializes in hand injuries, in
Lesquin, France, on Saturday. He was one of several men who helped
subdue the train assailant.
Reuters/Landov
In a statement from Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, the U.S. Commander
in Europe, Spencer was identified as an Airman First Class and Skarlatos
as a Specialist.
"These men are heroes. Actions like this
clearly illustrate the courage and commitment our young men and women
have all the time, whether they are on duty or on leave," Breedlove said
in a statement. "We are extremely proud of their efforts and now are
praying for our injured airman to have a speedy recovery."
On Friday, President Obama praised the "courage and quick thinking" of the passengers, echoing remarks by Cazeneuve.
Obama,
who is vacationing at Martha's Vineyard, spoke with French President
Francois Hollande by telephone on Saturday. A White House statement said
that Hollande agreed with Obama that the three Americans, a British man
living in France and a Frenchman who first encountered the attacker
"demonstrated remarkable bravery."
French media had initially reported that the suspect was subdued by two U.S. Marines.
Cazeneuve
said that when a French passenger tried to enter a toilet on the train,
he encountered the gunman and tried, but failed to overpower him. The
assailant's gun was then fired. A French-American passenger was hit by
the bullet.
That's when, Sadler tells the AP, the three heard a
gunshot and breaking glass and then saw a train employee running down
an aisle, followed by a man carrying an automatic rifle.
"As he
was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, 'Spencer, go!' And Spencer
runs down the aisle," Sadler said. "Spencer makes first contact, he
tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman
pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of
us beat him until he was unconscious."
"He didn't say anything.
He was just telling us to give back his gun. 'Give me back my gun! Give
me back my gun!' But we just carried on beating him up and immobilized
him and that was it," Spencer said.
Skarlatos was quoted by Sky News as saying "Spencer got to the guy first and grabbed the guy by the neck."
"I
grabbed the handgun, got that away from the guy and threw it. Then I
grabbed the AK-47 (Kalashnikov), which was at his feet, and started
muzzle-bumping him in the head with it," Skarlatos said. "Everybody just
started beating the guy while Spencer held the chokehold until he went
unconscious."
According to
France24,
when Skarlatos checked the AK-47, it had jammed and would not have been
able to fire. The cartridge for the handgun had also been dropped, he
said.
Norman, a British man living in France, was also hurt trying to subdue the attacker.
"I
came in at the end of it all and helped get him under control," he said
at a news conference in Arras. "The guy pulled out a cutter and started
cutting Spencer — he cut behind his neck and nearly cut his thumb off."
At a later news conference in Arras, Norman, who spoke alternately in French and English, was asked why he sprung into action.
"Either
you sit down and you die, or you get up and you die. It was as simple
as that," he told reporters. "We've seen enough of these attacks to know
that they will kill everyone."
Norman said he used a necktie
to restrain the assailant, described him as looking like he was from
North Africa but "small in build, slim."
Norman said the man "put up a pretty good fight, but Spencer Stone is a pretty strong man."
"Let's just say that the two Americans had a go at him, he couldn't do much more."
The
AP reports that Cazeneuve, speaking to reporters in Paris on Saturday,
said that the alleged attacker appears to be a man flagged by Spanish
authorities last year for having links to Islamic radical movements, but
that his identity has not been confirmed.
"It is important to
be careful about his identity which is not yet established with
certainty," Cazeneuve was quoted by Reuters as saying. He added: "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 connections to the
radical Islamist movement."
The AP quotes an official who
spoke on condition of anonymity said the suspect had traveled to Syria
and then returned to France.
The news agency, quoting the Paris
prosecutor's office says that French authorities "are questioning the
attacker and are expected to speak to at least one of the Americans on
Saturday about what happened. Counterterrorism police are leading the
investigation."
