At that point, he said, three Americans sitting near him saw the gunman and immediately took action. The train heroes are to be received by President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace “in the coming days”, his office said in a statement.
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The 22-year-old Skarlatos, a National Guardsman based in Oregon, was on a monthlong vacation after his return from deployment in Afghanistan.
European governments have been facing an increasing threat of attack by those of their nationals who have been to Iraq and Syria to fight for militant groups there.
He was hit by breaking glass as the alarm went off.
Hansen said Skarlatos said the same thing about Stone. Alek woke Spencer up and they then quickly chose to rush the man as he struggled with his gun. His son then called him from a police station and recounted the intense and frightening encounter on the train with a man armed with a pistol, an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle and a knife. “Give me back my gun!'” said Sadler. “I’m told he might mean the president of France before he leaves so I’m still wrapping my head around that”. “He inspires me”.
Being a Sacramento State student, school president Robert S. Nelsen commended Sadler’s heroism.
Stone was the first to tackle the attacker, and wound up getting slashed with a box cutter.
Sadler and a British passenger tied up the suspect.
Three Americans, including two military service members, aboard a high-speed train were being hailed Saturday as heroes for disarming a gunman who was known to intelligence services in three countries as an Islamic radical.
It’ll be hard to top his first trip to Europe and his final year in college. “I’m just a college student”, he said. Three young Americans, one of whom suffered knife wounds, were among the passengers who stopped the gunman. “I just looked at Spencer and said, ‘Let’s go!,'” Skarlatos told Sky News.
Norman, who said he was sitting at the front of the auto, saw a train employee dash past. “I ducked down in my seat”.
Norman added later, “What else is there to do?”
“It could have been a real carnage and there’s no question about that”, he said. Maybe they needed some help. “We will remain in close contact with French authorities as the investigation proceeds”. Spencer was cut, but was released from the hospital. He then grabbed the rifle, which was lying at the suspect’s feet, he told television interviewers.
“As he was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, ‘Spencer, go!’ And Spencer runs down the aisle”, Sadler said.
Norman believes the suspects gun may have jammed during the attack, giving them more time to act and prevent a tragedy. Spencer just ran anyway. Three passengers, including a high-profile actor, were injured during the attack.
US authorities confirmed that an American citizen had been injured but that their wounds were not life-threatening.
His father and stepmother said it’s a lot to take in.
The suspect is a 26-year-old Moroccan, according to Sliman Hamzi, an official with the police union Alliance, who spoke on i-Tele.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in the northern French city of Arras where the train was diverted, said the Americans “were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very hard circumstances”, and that “without their sangfroid we could have been confronted with a bad drama”.
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Shaken passengers from the train, eventually arrived in Paris early Saturday, several hours later than originally scheduled.
