Americans hailed as heroes acted on ‘instinct’

He was identified by counter-terrorism investigators as the gunman armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun who opened fire on the Amsterdam-Paris train on Friday.

“I thought it was the end, that we would die”, he said.

After meeting El-Khazzani, David said he appeared thin and malnourished, with “a very wild look in his eyes”.

“At that point I showed up and grabbed the gun from him and basically started beating him in the head until he fell unconscious”, said Skarlatos.

The suspect was identified as Ayoub El Khazzani, a 26-year-old Moroccan national who had already been flagged by Spanish authorities and linked to radical Islamist networks, according to CNN.

That’s when, Sadler tells the AP, the three heard a gunshot and breaking glass and then saw a train employee running down an aisle, followed by a man carrying an automatic rifle.

Sadler said the men were only in that train vehicle, which was first class, because the Wi-Fi had been shaky in the auto they initially Saturday They had bought first-class tickets, so they chose to hunt down their seats.

“It feels unreal, like a dream”, Stone said.

French President Francois Hollande is to thank the Americans and the Briton in person at the Elysee Palace on Monday, while US President Barack Obama called the three Americans and congratulated them on their “extraordinary bravery”. “He would have been able to operate through all of those magazines”.

Mr Stone and another man, who received cuts to his neck, were treated in hospital.

On Saturday, while Stone was in a French hospital being treated for slashes to his neck, face and hand – his friends said his thumb was almost severed- Skarlatos and Sadler spoke to the French and British media.

Stone, his left arm in a sling, told the press Sunday he was sleeping when one of his friends tapped him on the shoulder and said “let’s go”.

Skarlatos said: “Spencer ran a good 10 metres to get to the guy and we didn’t know that his gun wasn’t working or anything like that”.

Among the 554 people on board the Amsterdam-Paris train was French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, the star of Betty Blue and Nikita. Under French law the authorities can hold him for up to 96 hours without charge. Despite his injuries, Stone, who has some paramedic training, aided a passenger whose throat had been cut. Solon Skarlatos said his brother made clear during their phone conversation that Stone deserves special recognition for being the first to tackle the gunman, receiving cuts to his back, face and finger during the struggle.

His friend Anthony Sadler, a 23-year-old student at Sacramento State University, and a British business consultant, Chris Norman, then helped keep the man subdued.

“Spencer just ran anyway. And the gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer hadn’t gotten up”.

“Then I decided that perhaps this was the only chance for us to act as a team and try to take over”.

He said the attacker “put up quite a battle”. He said he rallied when he heard American voices and saw them begin their assault.

French authorities are on heightened alert after Islamic extremist attacks in January left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen.

The three men – a member of the Air Force, an inactive National Guard member and a civilian – have written their names in gold after they responded and prevented a deadly attack on a high-speed Thalys train passing through Belgium.

Sadler said he was the last of the three Americans to join the fray. “I’m just crying because I could’ve lost my son so easily”, she told the San Francisco Chronicle.