Three Americans, Briton get highest French honor for stopping train attack

“He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end”. “So were we”.

Stone, who wore a sling to the ceremony due to the injuries he received to his hand, has also been nominated for the US Air Force’s highest medal for non-combat bravery.

The gunman, identified as 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani, is detained and being questioned by French counterterrorism police outside Paris.

Meanwhile, the suspect – who had been flagged by intelligence services in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain as an “Islamist extremist” – has told investigators he was “dumbfounded” by accusations he was intending to carry out a terror attack, and insists he merely stumbled upon a weapons stash in a park in Belgium and decided to use it to rob passengers.

Even after the terrorist was overpowered, Sadler stayed in emergency mode and worked to keep the situation in order.

“The guy had a lot of ammo”, Skarlatos said.

Skarlatos, 22, of Roseburg, Oregon, said the first thing he heard was a gunshot. Stone said he had been sleeping soundly in his seat. During the struggle, El-Khazzani pulled out a handgun and box cutter, slicing Stone in the arms. The gunman was armed with a box cutter, a pistol, and a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle.

And he was eventually able to “choke him unconscious” and Mr Skarlatos hit him in the head with one of the guns, before he was tied up with the help of Mr Norman.

Their past training “mostly kicked in after the assailant was already subdued”, he said.

Moogalian was on the train from Amsterdam back home to Paris.

“If it wasn’t for them, I’d be dead”, Stone said.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said he is “incredibly proud of the three heroes” and is looking forward to shaking their hands and thanking them when they return to the United States. But the Wi-Fi in that auto was shaky, so they chose to hunt down their seats in first class.

Spanish law enforcement told their French counterparts in March 2014 that El-Khazzani had a “relationship with radical Islam”, the Spanish El Pais newspaper reported.

“He never said a word”, Sadler said, adding that El-Khazzani appeared to try to shoot the rifle, “so it was either do something or die”.

Speaking together to the media for the first time Sunday, the three Americans described pummelling Khazzani to the ground, saying basic survival instinct drove their actions. “Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos risked their own lives to save the lives of complete strangers”.

“In terms of crisis like that, I would want it to be learned that basically to do something”. Stone applied pressure to the man’s neck to help him avoid bleeding out, his friends said.

They said luck played a role. “It feels unreal, like a dream”, Stone said.

Stone, Sadler and Skarlatos, who had been vacationing in France at the time of the incident, were assisted by British national Chris Norman in restraining Kahzzani until authorities could arrive. Don’t just stand by and watch.

French President Francois Hollande honored the Americans today awarding them the prestigious Legion of Honor.