News from aljazeera.com
US President Barack Obama has praised
two off-duty US soldiers for their role in
stopping a gun attack on a train
travelling between Amsterdam and Paris.
Obama thanked the men for their
"courage and quick thinking" after the
attack on Friday on Belgian territory
near the northern French town of Arras.
Two others, including another US
national, and a British man living in
France were also involved in tackling the
attacker.
The incident left three people injured,
including one of the men who subdued
the gunman, a 26-year-old of Moroccan
origin who was known to the intelligence
services, French investigators said.
The man, who was arrested at a railway
station in Arras, had a Kalashnikov, an
automatic pistol, ammunition and a box
cutter in his luggage, one police source
told AFP news agency after Friday's
incident.
'Extremely violent suspect'
Bernard Cazeneuve, French interior
minister, who went to Arras in the wake
of the incident, praised the two
Americans who had subdued the
"extremely violent" suspect.
They showed "great bravery in very
trying circumstances", he said. "Without
their cool-headed actions we could have
been faced with a terrible incident."
Footage showed three men,
Americans Anthony Sadler and Aleck
Sharlatos, and Chris Norman, receiving
medals at a restaurant in Arras for their
actions, the Reuters news agency
reported.
A Spanish official, linked to the country's
anti-terrorism unit, said the individual
lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to
France, travelled to Syria, and then
returned to France, the Associated
Press news agency reported.
Cazeneuve said that the suspect may
have been flagged by Spanish authorities
last year for links to radical movements.
"I condemn the terrorist attack on the
Thalys [train] and express my sympathy
to the victims," Charles Michel, Belgian
prime minister, said on Twitter of the
incident which occurred while the train
was on Belgian territory.
French President Francois Hollande and
Michel agreed in a telephone call to
"cooperate closely" in the investigation,
according to a statement from the
Elysee Palace.
The incident occurred at 5.50pm local
time (15:50 GMT), the train operator
said.
The French prosecutor's office said its
anti-terrorist section had taken over the
investigation into the incident, "in view of
the weaponry used, the way it happened
and the context".
"The passengers are safe, the situation
has been brought under control," train
operator Thalys, which is jointly owned
by the national rail companies of Belgium,
France and Germany, said on Twitter.
France remains on edge after armed men
attacked the satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in
Paris in January in a spree that killed 17
people and shocked the world.
In June, a man beheaded his boss and
tried to blow up a gas plant in southern
France in what prosecutors say was an
attack inspired by the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
In May last year, four people, including
two Israeli tourists, were killed when an
armed man opened fire at the Jewish
Museum in Brussels.
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