A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris Friday, wounding three people before being subdued by two American passengers, officials said. The attack has not been classified as a terrorist attack, at least not yet, but Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve did call it “an attack of barbaric violence”.
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Investigators from France’s special anti-terror police are leading the investigation, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The suspect was loading his automatic Kalashnikov rifle in a toilet when the two Marines confronted him, the source said…
“He was stopped by passengers”.
The assailant was known by French intelligence, authorities told CNN, though his specific loyalties were being investigated.
The suspected gunman, a Moroccan national, was on the radar screen of European counterterrorism agencies for his radical jihadist views, the European counterterrorism official said.
“While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy”.
Urban said the servicemember’s injuries were not life-threatening.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Twitter issued a “thank you to those who interfered” with the attack.
High-speed trains such as the Thalys are supposed to have heightened security as part of an ongoing nationwide alert, but there are no baggage checks except on the Eurostar that runs beneath the English Channel.
Three other service members were involved in the incident: two Marines and one service member whose branch was unknown at press time, the report says. Their names were not immediately released.
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According to reports by the Telegraph, the gunman, who is thought to be of “North African” origin ands 26-years-old, was bum-rushed by the courageous Marines-although the man still managed off to fire off a couple shots before being detained.
