Americans thwart terrorist attack aboard train in France

(Vatican Radio) The French government has praised the bravery of American passengers who prevented a potential massacre when a gunman entered a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris. Three people were injured before the Americans subdued the attacker:

Listen to Stefan Bos' report: 

Investigators said a 26-year-old Moroccan armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a handgun, and a knife entered the Thalys service train late Friday. 

The gunman tried to shoot while the high-speed train was near Arras in France, with 554 people on board, officials said. Two of the American passengers who were in the military reacted quickly, as their childhood friend and travel companion Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, explained: “I am just a college student, this is my last year in college. I came to see my friends on my first trip in Europe. And we stopped the terrorist. It’s kind of crazy,” he said.

British businessman Chris Norman who was travelling with them said the American injured in the confrontation was Spencer Stone of the Sacramento area and the other was Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg, Oregon.

“I looked up and saw a guy carrying an AK-47”—also known as a Kalashnikov—“or I assumed it was some kind of machine gun anyway, “ he recalled. “I ducked down in my seat. Alek actually looked at what was happening. Spencer looked at what was happening. And Alek said to Spencer: ‘Go get him’,” he said.

Sadler said the troubles began when, “We heard a gunshot, and we heard glass breaking behind us, and saw a train employee sprint past us down the aisle.” Then, he said, the gunman planned to attack.

MAKING CONTACT

“As he was cocking it to shoot it [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,” Sadler told reporters.

Another passenger helped tie the gunman up. Stone then aided another passenger who had been wounded in the throat and was losing blood, Sadler added. “The gunman never said a word.”

The suspect was later detained at Arras station where authorities met the American passengers.

A third person, French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, suffered a minor injury while activating the train's emergency alarm, authorities said.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspect was taken into custody, said one of the American passengers was hospitalized with serious wounds and he praised their bravery.

AMERICANS PRAISED

He said the Americans “were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances" and that "without their actions we could have been confronted with a terrible drama.”

In Washington, the Pentagon could “only confirm that one U.S. military member was injured in the incident. The injury is not life-threatening.”

The White House said President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting, and added, “While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy.”

French anti-terrorist officials are investigating the incident which comes after France was already coping with the aftermath of terrorist attacks earlier this year that left 20 people dead.