Three wounded in shooting on high-speed French train

Contrary to early reports, Lorthiois said the attacker did not fire his automatic weapon but wounded one man with a handgun and the other with a blade of some kind.

No further details have been reported about the incident.

Two of the victims were in critical condition, according to a statement from the office of President Francois Hollande. Witnesses from the train told French media that the attack apparently began near the back of the train, raising the possibility that the intent was to move forward through the train, which was carrying 554 passengers aboard.

Police said a motive is unknown at the time. PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/REUTERS Gun cartridges and a backpack are seen on the ground outside the train station in Arras, France. At least one suffered gunshot wounds, a spokesman for railway company SNCF said. American Christina Cathleen Coons who is traveling in France and was on the train, said she heard gunfire, dived under her seat and opened a pull-down table.

The operator of the service between Amsterdam and Paris said the situation is under control.

Luckily, two U.S. Marines who were also on board overpowered the 26-year-old Moroccan man.

The incident happened on the high-speed Thalys service near Arras, and the attacker was arrested at Arras station.

“Everything is being done to shed light” on the shooting, Mr Hollande said.

Train personnel stand next to Thalys trains at the main train station in Arras, northern France, following the shooting.

The American passengers “were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very hard circumstances”, said Cazeneuve, adding that “without their sangfroid we could have been confronted with a awful drama”.

Pierre Henry Brandet, a French ministry spokesman, said on BFM-TV television: “A man opened fire on this Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris”. France has been the site of several lone-wolf terror attacks this year, including the killing of 17 people in Paris in attacks on a satiric magazine and a kosher store.

In June, a suspected Islamist beheaded his boss and tried to blow up a U.S-owned industrial gas plant in the suburbs of Lyon.