Passengers thwart terrorist attack on French train

They saw a man brandishing an automatic rifle and other weapons.

“I saw a guy carrying an AK-47, or at least I assumed it was some kind of machine gun”.

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

Instinct should have told him to stay there. We shouted for the staff to help us, to let us in to their (locked) vehicle. Seeing his son’s face on FaceTime and hearing his voice has put his mind at ease. The man tried to squeeze off a shot from his pistol, but it wouldn’t fire. As Stone tackled the gunman, the assailant flailed at him with a box cutter, cutting Stone’s thumb deeply and wounding him on the neck as well. The gunman’s rifle is seen resting on a chair as passengers attempt to find a handgun they believe to be on the floor.

“We’re still wrapping our head around it. We’re grasping for the magnitude of it”, Sadler’s father, 57-year-old Tony Sadler Sr. said from his Rancho Cordova home Saturday. “Actions like this clearly illustrate the courage and commitment our young men and women have all the time, whether they are on duty or on leave”, Breedlove said in a statement on Saturday. Stone is an Air Force member while Skarlatos is in the National Guard.

The U.S. ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, said the three Americans displayed the best qualities of their country.

Skarlatos, 22, who recently returned from serving in Afghanistan, said the gunman had seemed highly determined. He reenlisted last month for two more years and is now assigned as a rifleman. The American servicemen were heroes and saved hundreds of lives.

In this image made from TV, Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, left, sits with …

When his childhood friend shouted a warning, Spencer Stone did not hesitate, launching himself headlong at the armed man in the train carriage. When the suspect appeared with a gun on their auto, Skarlatos mobilized others, witnesses said. French officials had identified the man as a security risk, but he was not under surveillance and had apparently spent little time in France.

The gunman slashed Stone several times with a boxcutter.

“He was there to do business”.

Calling the attack “an attack of barbaric violence”, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office in Paris will investigate.

Earlier Norman said that Skarlatos had jumped up to help Spencer who was followed immediately by Sadler.

He told police he found a bag in a park in Brussels containing guns and a knife and the idea came to him to rob people.

“My mind was purely survival, maybe I have a chance to make it out and I help these blokes”, Norman said.

The three Americans, who reportedly met in middle school in California, planned on spending the summer sightseeing together.

Mr Stone was also praised for his quick thinking in.

The Spaniards responded on May 21 saying he no longer lived in Spain but in Belgium, according to the French official. Suspects on the list are noted for their “links with terrorist organizations”, but not all are under 24-hour surveillance.

The train was heading to Paris when the attack occurred.

Intelligence sources told the newspaper Le Monde that the suspect – who was transferred Saturday morning from Arras in northern France to the anti-terrorist brigade headquarters at Levallois-Perret just outside Paris – initially refused to answer questions except to give his name, age and nationality. “I do not know how many magazines he had”. They’re pictured posing with medals they received for their bravery at a restaurant in Arras.

‘Their heroic actions… prevented a far worse tragedy’.

British businessman Chris Norman also joined in the fray.

Loved ones said they are not surprised by the actions the friends took, “Alek and Spencer are in the military, they’re trained for this”.