Relatives proud of 3 Americans who subdued gunman on train

Airman First Class Spencer Stone and Oregon National Guard Specialist Alek Skarlatos grew up playing sports and rough-housing with one another and their brothers in California, their parents told NBC affiliate KCRA Saturday.

Two American servicemembers were awarded medals for bravery after they disarmed a suspected terrorist aboard a Paris-bound high speed train. There are reports that at least three US Marines were involved in the rescue.

A man was arrested when the train stopped at Arras station in northern France but his motives were not yet known, a ministry spokesman said. He was armed with an AK-47 and a handgun on the Amsterdam-Paris train on Friday. But he said Belgium also has opened a probe and other European investigators will join efforts to trace his movements. That includes contacts in Spain, Germany, Turkey and Belgium. El-Khazzani was placed on a French security watch list shortly afterward.

French officials have expressed gratitude.

Bullets sounded and the Americans moved in.

Chris Norman, a 62-year-old business consultant advising African entrepreneurs, was returning home to the south of France when he heard shots fired behind him on Friday evening aboard the train. “Give me back my gun!'”, said Mr Sadler in the BFMTV interview. “We heard a gunshot, and we heard glass breaking behind us, and saw a train employee sprint past us down the aisle”, Sadler explained.

“Alek jumped up and helped Spencer, followed immediately by Anthony, and I came in at the end of it all and I guess just helped get the guy under control”.

“I would rather die being active, trying to get him down than simply sit in the corner and be shot”, he said.

He said: “We ended up by tying him up, then during the process the guy actually pulled out a cutter and starting cutting Spencer”.

With the man floored, Skarlatos left to search for more terrorists, while Norman helped tie up the attacker with his tie. My thought was, OK, probably I’m going to die anyway. “So, let’s go”, he said.

“He had a Kalashnikov, he had a magazine full…”

He said that the injured American was Spencer Stone of Sacramento, and the other was Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg, Oregon. French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, who cut his finger it to the bone while activating the train’s emergency alarm, heaped praise on the Americans, recounting the high emotion of the episode to Paris Match.

“I’m just glad that they quickly took action”, Stone said. Stone remains hospitalized due to his non life-threatening stab wounds, a dual French-American citizen was wounded by stray gunfire and Anglade suffered hand injuries from broken glass. He was released from the hospital Saturday. The three friends had been traveling together in Europe.

Obama, who is now on vacation, was quoted in a White House statement as saying his thoughts and prayers are with those wounded in the attack and wished them a speedy recovery.

President Obama called the men on Saturday, and French President Francoise Hollande is scheduled to meet with the men, according to BBC. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be identified by name.