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United States Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and their friend Anthony Sadler, spoke to the press on Sunday at the US embassy in Paris.

Officials didn’t disclose a possible motive for the attack, but Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Spanish authorities had notified French intelligence about the suspect because he belongs to a “radical Islamist movement”.

Three quick-thinking Americans – two of them US servicemen – are being hailed as heroes for preventing an apparent terrorist attack which could have resulted in many causalities aboard a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. US President Barack Obama congratulated...

“It’s my previous year in college”.

“I’m really proud of my friend that he just reacted so quickly and so bravely”, Anthony Sadler said.

But he added: “If the identity he has declared is confirmed, he is a 26-year-old man of Moroccan nationality identified by the Spanish authorities to French intelligence services in February 2014 because of his connections to the radical Islamist movement”.

Belgian and French investigators are looking into the man’s motives, although police sources told French broadcaster i-Tele that he has denied having terrorist intentions.

Cazeneuve did not mention any visit to Syria or France, only naming Spain and Belgium as the suspected militant’s places of residence, this year and last.

The suspect, believed to be a man of Moroccan origin who recently lived in Spain and Belgium, was reportedly armed with a slew of weapons: A Kalashnikov assault weapon, nine chargers, a Luger automatic pistol, a 9mm charger and a box cutter.

Stone was one of three young American friends who helped overpower a Kalashnikov-toting suspected Islamist militant on a high speed train heading for Paris from Amsterdam.