France train shooting: British hero ‘happy to be alive’

Three young Americans, who are credited with thwarting a terrorist attack on a French train, were given France’s highest honor Monday morning.

On Monday, Skarlatos, Sadler, Stone and British businessman Chris Norman, who also helped subdue the gunman, received France’s highest medal at the Elysee Palace, making them Chevalier, knights of the Legion of Honour.

Airman Spencer Stone was perhaps the most injured of the three; his thumb had to be reattached.

“You have shown that in the face of terror, you can resist”, Hollande said during the ceremony, according to the Washington Post. “You also gave a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope”.

Mr Stone, who is on leave from the US Air Force, grappled with the man and put him in a chokehold, while Mr Skarlatos took away his assault rifle during the altercation on Friday evening. A gunshot had awakened them, and a passenger, whom Hollande identified as Mark Moogalian, a 51-year-old French-American citizen, had been hit in the throat and was bleeding badly.

Khazzani is accused of emerging from a toilet cubicle on the high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, brandishing the weapons, just after it crossed from Belgium into northern France.

“They are saying Ayoub is a terrorist but I simply can’t believe it”, said Khazzani, 64, a scrap merchant who lives in the poor El Saladillo district of Algeciras with his wife and some of his six children.

U.S. Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, praised the three Americans for running into the line of fire.

Stone said the attacker kept pulling out weapons from his bag, and that he was stabbed in the neck and sliced on his hand.

Mr Stone said: “He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end”.

“We made a decision to get up because the Wi-Fi wasn’t so good in that auto”, Sadler said.

Stone, who had initially brought the gunman to the ground, had his hand slashed by the perpetrator during the scuffle.

But the suspect’s lawyer said the attack had nothing to do with terrorism. The suspect, a 26 year old Moroccan man, is still being questioned by French antiterrorist police.

“The gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer had not gotten up”, said Sadler.

Now the majority of trains require no security checks prior to boarding, which might increase the risk of such attacks, but security experts says that changing the current practice might be nearly impossible due to the density of the rail road transportation system, The Post reported. There is one more person who will receive honor, but Hollande noted that he wished to remain anonymous.