(Newswire.net — August 22, 2015) — At least three people have been injured after a man, armed with rifle, opened fire in high-speed train on route from Amsterdam to Paris, BBC reported.
Reportedly, while train was in proximity of Arras, a town in northern France, a man without a shirt stepped out of train toilet armed with a rifle, allegedly Kalashnikov AK-47, and start shooting randomly.
The shooting occurred around 6:00 pm local time (4:00 pm GMT). The passengers overpowered gunman and security forces locked down the railway station in Arras.
The shooter was later identified by police as 26-year-old ISIS supporter from Morocco, but the case has not been marked as a terrorist attack. “The man was armed with automatic weapons and knives. He was stopped by passengers,” Christophe Piednoel, a spokesman for French railway SNCF said on iTele television.
Reportedly, the brave passengers who stopped the gunman are two Americans, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, members of the Air Force and the National Guard respectively. The third man is a civilian, Chris Norman, a British man living in France.
According to Anthony Sadler, a friend of Skarlatos and Stone, at the moment shooter opened fire, Skarlators yelled “Spencer, go!” and they jumped out their seats and stormed down the aisle.
Sadler continued, “Spencer made first contact and tackled the shooter. Meanwhile, Alek wrestled the gun away from him. The gunman pulled out a box cutter and sliced Spencer a few times.” One passenger also stepped to help overpower the gunman. They then beat him [gunman] until he was unconscious.
Amid the commotion, one passenger, later identified as French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade (‘Killing Zoe,’ ‘Betty Blue’ and ‘Nikita’) smashed the alarm glass injuring his hand.
Anthony Sadler from California, Aleck Sharlatos from Oregon, and Chris Norman, the British man living in France received medals for their bravery
US President Barack Obama praised the passengers, who included two off-duty US military personnel, expressing his “profound gratitude” and French President Francois Hollande has expressed his solidarity with the wounded ensuring that “everything is being done to shed light on this tragedy.”
without a shirt