Belgium Rail Security Increased After Foiled Terror Attack

The pair, who were in civilian clothes, started monitoring the gunman after passengers noticed his behavior was erratic, media reports said.

Alek was traveling on the train with Spencer, who is in the Air Force, Emanuel said.

Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, was traveling with childhood friends Stone, of Carmichael, California, and Alek Skarlatos, a National Guardsman from Roseburg, Oregon.

“As he was cocking [the rifle] to shoot it, Alek just yells, ‘Spencer, go!’ And Spencer runs down the aisle”, Mr. Sadler told reporters.

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

But with an arsenal, “he was there to do business”.

“They trusted each other where one wouldn’t back down if the other was getting his butt kicked”, Skarlatos said.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the attacker’s identity was not confirmed, but that if he was telling the truth to his interrogators, he was a 26-year-old of Moroccan nationality identified as unsafe and with connections to Islamist militants.

The suspected terrorist was armed with a fully automatic AKM for which he had 9 30-round magazines, a unidentified semi-automatic handgun with an unknown amount of ammunition, and edged weapons. He was transferred Saturday morning to anti-terror police headquarters outside Paris and can be held for up to 96 hours.

The trio were on their way to Paris from Amsterdam when the incident on the train occurred. An official linked to Spain’s anti-terrorism unit said the suspect lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to France, travelled to Syria, and then returned to France, according to the Associated Press.

Spanish police reportedly warned French authorities that he was a “very radical and dangerous” man. The cartridge for the handgun had also been dropped, he said.

French authorities said he had lived in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras, frequenting a mosque which is under surveillance there. Belgium also announced it was imposing stricter security on trains.

“The President expressed his profound gratitude for the courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including U.S. service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker”, said an official with the White House.

President Obama also hailed their bravery.

French authorities look for clues on the train platform in Arras, where the gunman was arrested.

In June, a lone attacker claiming allegiance to Islamic radicals beheaded his employer and set off an explosion at an American-owned factory in France.

The proud parents of Oregon Army National Guard soldier Alek Skarlatos, who helped subdue a suspected terrorist on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris, have been rendered sleepless by news of their son’s heroism.

“Then one guy, an American, said “Go get him” and I heard another American say ‘Don’t you do that, buddy.’ So then I decided that perhaps it was really the only time or only chance was to act as a team and try to take over the terrorist”.

(Spencer) jumped up and I followed behind him by about three seconds. He had a magazine full.

“My thought was I’m probably going to die anyway”.

He was released from the hospital on Saturday.

Skarlatos, 22, had returned from a deployment in Afghanistan in July, and Stone is stationed in the Azores, according to Skarlatos’ step-mother Karen Skarlatos.

She spoke with her step-son immediately after the incident. Experts have long said the trains are a potential target for attacks.

Norman gave an account of how the U.S. servicemen, along with himself and others aboard the train, leaped into action when the man began shooting Friday.

The Arras mayor praised the “extraordinary reflexes” of the Americans and awarded them special medals overnight. He said the struggle started when a Frenchman on his way to the toilet tried to stop the man entering a carriage.

He added later, “The way that… the two Americans had a go at him, he could not do much more”.

Siek reported from New York.