Armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter, the attacker opened fire on board the high-speed train just after it crossed from Belgium into northern France. And the gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer hadn’t gotten up.
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His friend Anthony Sadler, a 23-year-old student at Sacramento State University, and a British business consultant, Chris Norman, then helped keep the man subdued.
And Stone – whom The New York Times described as a “powerfully built” – said the three were prepared for a battle: “It seemed like the terrorist was ready to fight until the end but so were we”. “So were we”.
Stone, who was wearing a sling on his left arm, was wounded in the attack and said he will receive further medical treatment in Germany.
Authorities said they believe Khazzani is an Islamic extremist who may have been radicalized while living in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras.
Sadler sounded skeptical when asked if it might have been a robbery and not terrorism.
“He says that the Kalashnikov didn’t work and he was brought under control immediately without a single shot being fired”, David added. The men tackled Khazzani and choked him unconscious. Mooligan wrested the rifle away from the attacker, The Telegraph reported. Officials said Khazzani had been on their radar after he was identified as a member of a radical Islamist movement.
All three friends credited each other with helping stop the gunman. So my first reaction was to sit down and hide. He said he rallied when he heard American voices and saw them begin their assault. He told reporters that the soldiers’ training “kicked in after the assailant was subdued…but in the beginning it was basically gut instinct”.
El-Khazzani reportedly used a knife and slashed Stone’s neck and hand, leaving his thumb almost severed.
“I trust both my friends very much”, Stone said. He has been released and passed on his thanks to the French nurses and doctors. “I didn’t realize how bad they were”, Stone said. Throughout the brief but terrifying episode, Sadler said, “The gunman never said a word”.
El-Khazzani had lived in Europe for several years, and was reportedly known to security agencies in Spain, France, and Belgium.
Sadler said he was the last of the three Americans to join the fray.
The attorney said El-Khazzani often slept in the Brussels train station, and thought the train would have “wealthy” passengers he could rob.
“Then I decided that perhaps this was the only chance for us to act as a team and try to take over”.
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French President Francois Hollande will on Monday award the men the country’s top Legion d’Honneur medal. “It felt like a dream, or a movie”.
