France nears decision on charging gunman in train attack

El-Khazzani, 26, was tackled and tied up by five passengers, including three Americans and a Briton, averting what President Francois Hollande said “could have degenerated into monstrous carnage”.

Each of the trio credits the others for stopping El Khazzani.

He boarded the train Friday at a Brussels station. “Our training kicked in after the struggle”, he said. The suspect’s phone was found in a bag left on the train.

A heavily-armed gunman overpowered by passengers on a crowded train is “dumbfounded” by allegations of terrorism and denies any shot was fired, his lawyer said in comments broadcast Sunday. He may have tried to go to Syria.

The train incident has highlighted growing difficulties in protecting public spaces from individual attackers.

In his remarks Hollande said the four had showed “that faced with terror, we have the power to resist”.

He didn’t elaborate on a specific threat, though France has been on high alert for attacks all year. He stressed his commitment to counterterrorism efforts at home and overseas against extremists. No one was detained or taken in for questioning, though investigators seized “some objects” for further examination, it said. Under French law the authorities can hold him for up to 96 hours without charge.

Skarlatos also traveled Monday to Germany “to accompany his friend after the traumatic experience they went through together”, Melendez said.

Stone was undergoing treatment at a military hospital in Germany for injuries suffered in the attack.

“Airman Stone and Specialist Alex Skarlatos are two reasons why – on duty and off – ours is the finest fighting force the world has ever known”, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement on Saturday.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley also attended the ceremony, along with the head of French national railway authority SNCF.

Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg and his two companions had moved to what became the scene of the attack in the train in search of a better internet connection. The Army announced that Skarlatos will be awarded the Soldiers Medal, the U.S. Army’s highest award for acts of heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy.

Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University in California and one of the three US heroes who subdued the gunman on a French train, poses for the media during the French premiere of Straight Outta Compton, in Paris, Monday August, 24, 2015. Columbia Sportswear CEO Timothy Boyle had made the jet available to fly the Americans’ mothers to France. “He pulled out a hand gun, and I saw he had what appeared to be an AK47”, Stone said.