France honours train shooting heroes

Three Americans and a Briton who foiled a suspected terror attack on a train have received France’s top honour from President Francois Hollande.

Mr Hollande presented Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler and Briton Chris Norman with the Legion d’honneur at the Elysee Palace.

Two other unnamed passengers will receive the honour at a later date.

The passengers overpowered a suspected radical Islamist on a high-speed train bound for Paris on Friday.

French authorities are questioning the suspect, 25-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani.

Mr Hollande pinned medals on the chests of the four passengers at a ceremony in Paris on Monday morning.

“We are here to honour four men who, thanks to their bravery, managed to save lives,” he said.

“In the name of France, I would like to thank you. The whole world admires your bravery. It should be an example to all of us and inspire us. You put your lives at risk in order to defend freedom”.

Read also: Train passengers foil planned massacre by Islamist attacker

Hollande said, “They showed us what can be done”

The alleged gunman, identified as Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani, said he only intended to conduct a robbery, not a terror act, his attorney Sophie David told CNN affiliate BFMTV.

David said her client told her he found the firearms in a public garden next to a train station in Brussels, Belgium.

But authorities said with the kind of firepower he had, it appears he was planning a massacre.

He had an AK-47 assault weapon with nine magazines of ammunition, a Luger pistol with extra ammo and a box cutter, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

“The guy had a lot of ammo,” said Skarlatos, a National Guardsman based in Oregon. “His intentions were pretty clear.”

 

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