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Americans Foil Gunman on French Train, Officials Say Americans Foil Gunman on French Train, Officials Say
(35 minutes later)
PARIS — A gunman opened fire aboard a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding at least three people before two American passengers subdued him, French officials said. PARIS — A heavily armed gunman opened fire aboard a packed high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris late Friday afternoon, wounding several passengers before he was tackled and subdued by two Americans, French officials said, describing the pair as heroes who may have averted a mass killing.
The Americans were not immediately identified, but France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said they “were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances.’’ At least one of the Americans was a military member.
One of the Americans was among the wounded in the attack, which the French antiterror police were investigating. The assault was described as a terrorist attack by the Belgian prime minister, and French officials said one of the Americans was among the wounded. Their conditions were not immediately clear.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman in Washington, said that an American military member was on the train and had been wounded in the episode. He said Pentagon officials had not yet confirmed the name or rank or service, or whether the second American also was a service member. French officials were refusing to characterize the episode as terrorism late Friday night. But the antiterrorism unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office immediately took charge of the investigation.
The attacker began shooting while the train was passing through Belgium, French news reports said, and it was stopped in the northern French city of Arras. A 26-year-old man of Moroccan origin was taken into custody by the police as the train, loaded with 554 passengers, many frightened, pulled into the station in Arras, in northern France, according to French media.
The gunman was detained and was described by French officials as a 26-year-old of Moroccan origin armed with an automatic weapon and a knife. Passengers spoke of hearing gunshots as the train was traveling through the countryside, and of seeing bloodied individuals rolling out into the grass when the train lurched to a stop during the shooting.
SNCF, France’s national railway operator, said all passengers had been evacuated from the train and that the police had secured the station in Arras, which is about 115 miles north of Paris. France, on high alert after deadly terrorist attacks this year, immediately sent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to Arras, where he commended the two Americans on the train who helped “neutralize this extremely violent passenger,” praising them for their “great bravery” and saying that “without their sang-froid we could have been confronted with a terrible tragedy.”
A French newspaper, La Voix du Nord, said one of the passengers had been the actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, and that he had suffered a hand injury. Capt. Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman in Washington, said that an American military member was on the train and had been injured in the episode. He said Pentagon officials had not yet confirmed the name or rank or service, or whether the second American was also a service member.
Police sources quoted in the French news media said the Americans heard the suspect loading a weapon in one of the toilets and confronted him as he exited. The attack occurred as the train was hurtling at top speed toward Paris, on Belgian territory.
“I condemn the terrorist attack,” the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, said on Twitter, expressing his sympathy for the victims.
A French actor, Jean-Hugues Anglade, who appeared in the 1986 film “Betty Blue,” was aboard the train. Mr. Cazeneuve confirmed French media reports that the actor was lightly injured in the episode.
In an indication of how seriously the French were taking the assault, President François Hollande issued a statement Friday night saying that “everything is being done to determine what had happened on the train, having handed the investigation over to the country’s top antiterrorism investigators.
“It lasted all of two minutes,” one passenger, identified only as Maxime, told a local paper, La Voix du Nord. “The train started slowing down, before suddenly stopping. We saw people covered in blood, jumping off, running, then rolling into the grass. They looked totally shocked.”
Another passenger was quoted as hearing “two gunshots. But we thought it was coming from the train, that there was some problem with the train. Then the train started to brake, and it stopped in the middle of the countryside,” the passenger, Maty, told the newspaper.
France’s sensitivities to terrorist assaults have been heightened since January, when Islamic militants killed 17 in attacks in and around Paris. In June, an Islamist extremist beheaded his boss in southern France and tried to blow up a gas plant.
French lawmakers have passed tough surveillance laws in the wake of these attacks, and the anti-immigrant, far right National Front party has seen its popularity surge.