France investigators to decide on train gunman charges

The three American heroes who helped to prevent a heavily armed man from killing train passengers are now recipients of France’s highest honor.

Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel and the US Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, attended the ceremony, along with the head of the French rail firm, SNCF.

President Hollande personally thanked the group for their bravery.

El-Khazzani, 25, was on the train with the AK-47, a “box cutter” knife, a Luger automatic pistol and extra ammunition when he began his attack.

Mr. Stone said Monday that a French man who was the first person that tried to stop the gunman “deserves a lot of the credit”.

Skarlatos was traveling with his friends Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone and college student Anthony Sadler from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday when they heard a gunshot. Chris Norman helped tie him up.

His arm in a sling, Stone, 23, has said he was coming out of a deep sleep when the gunman appeared.

A French citizen who also tackled the suspected jihadist, but wishes to remain anonymous, is to receive the honor at a later date, as will a Franco-American passenger recovering from being shot during the attack.

‘All three of us started punching him, ‘ said Mr Stone, adding that he put the man in a chokehold until he was unconscious.

“But ‘it seemed like he just kept pulling more weapons”, Stone said.

President Francois Hollande warned on Tuesday that France must brace for further attacks, just days after a potential bloodbath on a train was foiled by passengers.

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.

“The Legion of Honor was created by Napoleon, and is reserved to those who give outstanding service to the nation”. “So you have given us a lesson of courage, of determination and therefore of hope”.

His father, Mohammed el Khazzani, was quoted by Spanish newspaper El Mundo as saying he had not spoken to his son since he left the Spanish southern port town of Algeciras for France in 2014 to work for a mobile phone company that fired him one month into a six-month contract. Alek just hit me on the shoulder and said “Let’s go” and ran down, tackled him.

But Mr. Skarlatos says the training did not influence their actions.

According to Khazzani, who does not speak French and whose comments were translated by an interpreter, he boarded the train to rob people, and had intended to break a window and jump out to escape.