PARIS— A heavily armed man with ties to radical Islam who was known in three European countries as potentially dangerous escaped the radar when he boarded a high-speed train— but not the courage of three American passengers who took him down.
Two U.S. servicemen, one in the Air Force, another who recently served in Afghanistan in the National Guard, and their friend who is a student, tackled and disarmed the gunman with the help of a Briton, winning trans-Atlantic kudos.
Ayoub El-Khazzani, 26, was being questioned by French counter-terrorism police who confirmed through fingerprints their suspicions that he was the man on their radar since February 2014. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Spanish authorities had advised French intelligence about him because he belongs to the “radical Islamist movement.”
As the Amsterdam to Paris train passed through Belgium, a French citizen trying to use the toilet encountered and tried to subdue the gunman, who had a Kalashnikov strapped across his shoulder, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, adding him to the heroes list.
Bullets sounded and the Americans moved in. The train, in Belgium, was rerouted to Arras in northern France, the nearest station, where El-Khazzani was arrested.
A duel French-American citizen with a bullet wound was helicoptered to a hospital in nearby Lille and the Air Force man, Spencer Stone, was taken to another Lille hospital for a hand injury. He was released at day’s end. Police in Arras questioned his two friends. A heavily guarded cortege was seen arriving Saturday night at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Paris, apparently escorting the three.
Stone, of Carmichael, California, was traveling with childhood friends Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, and Alek Skarlatos, a National Guardsman from Roseburg, Oregon, when they heard a gunshot and breaking glass. Sadler told The Associated Press that they saw a train employee sprint down the aisle followed by a gunman with 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.”
Throughout the brief but terrifying episode, Sadler said, “The gunman never said a word.”
But with the weapons he carried, “he was there to do business. That’s for sure,” Skarlatos said in an interview shown on French television.
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