Major European rail services have bolstered security measures after the foiled attack on a Thalys service high-speed train on Friday.
A 25-year-old Moroccan national named Ayob El Khazzani, opened fire on Friday evening on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris.
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The suspected Islamist militant was reportedly armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter.
Reports emerged that a group of passengers, named Anthony Sadle, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, overpowered the gunman as he opened fire onboard the train.
Skarlatos, a member of the National Guard in Oregon, US, was quoted by France BFMTV as saying: "I looked back and saw a guy enter with a Kalashnikov. My friends and I got down and then I said ‘Let’s get him’.
An airman from the US air base, Spencer Stone was the first to restrain the gunman, who slashed him in the neck and almost sliced off his thumb with a box-cutter.
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By GlobalData"At that point, I showed up and grabbed the gun from him and basically started beating him in the head until he fell unconscious."
The Thalys high-speed train is operated by the Franco-Belgian state transport group that runs international trains connecting France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was quoted by BBC as saying that the suspect’s identity had yet to be confirmed, and believed that he had radical Islamist beliefs.
