Three Americans thwart gunman aboard European train

PARIS - The shooter boarded the packed high-speed train with enough firepower to slaughter dozens in a matter of minutes, and he was foiled not through high-tech security but because vacationing American service members happened to be there to overpower him.

Now sharp questions are being asked about Europe's security measures after a man who had been flagged by counterterrorism authorities as a potential risk was allowed onto the continent's vital rail system without any security checks. Spanish, French, and Belgian security officials had had the man - identified as 26-year-old Moroccan citizen Ayoub el-Khazzani - on their radar for more than a year.

The Americans - Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, and his childhood friend Spec. Alek Skarlatos, who just returned from a deployment in Afghanistan - are being lauded as heroes along with a third American friend and a British consultant who teamed up to subdue the assailant. But European leaders called for swift measures to improve security so that they would not need to rely on luck to thwart a shooting that could quickly have become as bloody as the January terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed 20 lives, including the three gunmen.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday that the suspect was believed to have been a member of "the radical Islamic movement." French and Belgian authorities both mobilized thousands of security officers to patrol trains and train stations on Saturday. In densely populated Europe, high-speed trains are as critical to travel as planes are in the United States - but on most routes there are no X-ray machines or metal detectors, and it is possible to buy tickets without providing identification.

French investigators have identified the attacker as el-Khazzani, an official with knowledge of the investigation said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about it. El-Khazzani lived in Spain until March 2014 in the southern city of Algeciras, where authorities had picked him up for drug trafficking and noted that he attended a mosque with ties to Islamist militancy.

Spanish authorities had notified other European security agencies when el-Khazzani left Algeciras, and he was added to watch lists in both France and Belgium, according to authorities in both countries. The French designation flagged him for heightened scrutiny when he entered and exited borders. But there are about 5,000 people on the list, far too many to monitor around the clock, security analysts said.

The suspect in Friday's attack had been flagged by other European counterterrorism authorities as a potential jihadist, but "he was not known as someone dangerous," Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens told reporters in Brussels. "We get a lot of these names," he said, saying that it was important to balance monitoring with privacy concerns.

European security authorities had noticed that el-Khazzani traveled to Turkey from Berlin in May, the French official with knowledge of the investigation said. Turkey has a porous border with Syria, and it has become a conduit for Islamist militants traveling in and out of the fighting there. But it is also a popular European vacation destination.

Spanish security officials believe that el-Khazzani traveled from France to Syria and back last year, the Spanish newspaper El País reported. Belgian newspaper Le Soir, meanwhile, said that Belgian authorities believed he may have had connections to a large Islamist militant ring broken up there in January.

In the end, the suspect slipped onto the train on Friday afternoon unnoticed, with a prodigious armory: nine spare clips for his Kalashnikov in his backpack along with a 9mm pistol and a box cutter. The attacker was in the bathroom when he was discovered by a French citizen. The man tried to subdue the attacker, but was thwarted by gunshots, Cazeneuve said.

That's when the Americans sprang into action. Spencer Stone, an Air Force serviceman who is stationed at Lajes Air Base in the Azores, heard the first shots go off and ran toward the attacker, said his friend Skarlatos, a member of the Oregon Army National Guard.

"Spencer ran a good 10 meters to get to the guy, and we didn't know that his gun wasn't working or anything like that. Spencer just ran anyway, and if anyone would've gotten shot it would've been Spencer, for sure," Skarlatos told French television networks on Saturday.

Stone got the suspect into a headlock, while Skarlatos said he grabbed the suspect's pistol and threw it away. Then Skarlatos took the man's rifle and started beating him with it. During the fracas, the suspect managed to injure Stone in the hand and neck with a box-cutter, French authorities said.

Another childhood friend, Anthony Sadler, a student at California State University at Sacramento, joined to help restrain the suspect, as did British businessman Chris Norman, 62.

The men managed to hog-tie the assailant and subdue him, he said. A shaky cellphone video of the outcome showed the trussed man, shirtless and in white pants, lying facedown on the floor of the train car, his legs tied up in the air.

Sadler told French television journalists that even though Stone was injured in the scuffle, he went to aid an injured passenger.

"Without his help he would've died. That man was bleeding from his neck profusely," Sadler said.

Stone was treated and released on Saturday, according to U.S. officials.

The men who foiled the attack received phone calls of congratulations and appreciation from both President Obama and French President François Hollande on Saturday.

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Here are profiles of the three Americans credited with foiling an attack on a French train:

Alek Skarlatos, 22, a specialist with the Oregon Army National Guard from Roseburg, Ore., had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan before embarking on a European vacation. Skarlotos, a gun owner and outdoorsman, told reporters he wrestled an automatic weapon away from the shooter and then used the gun to beat the man unconscious. Family members told reporters that Skarlatos wants to become a police officer.

Spencer Stone, 23, an airman first class with the U.S. Air Force from Carmichael, Calif., is credited with tackling the gunman before attending to a wounded passenger who was bleeding profusely. Stone, who practices martial arts, according to his Facebook page, sustained severe cuts on his hand and neck and has been released from a French hospital. Authorities say his bold decision to act may have saved hundred of lives. "He's always been a hero to me. Now he's an actual hero," his mother, Joyce Eskel, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Anthony Sadler, 23, a senior at California State University at Sacramento, was making his first visit to Europe when he helped his two childhood friends take down and subdue the gunman. Family members described him as an athlete and a "quick decision-maker" who goes out of his way to help others. "He loves his friends and would never stand and watch his friends engage a gunman and put themselves at risk and not play a role in helping," Tony Sadler, Anthony's father, said. "That would never happen." - Washington PostEndText