2 U.S. Marines subdue gunman on train from Amsterdam to Paris
Americans took action, preventing likely massacre, officials say
PARIS — A heavily armed gunman opened fire aboard a packed highspeed 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.
At least one of the Americans was a member of the armed services, and some news reports said they were both Marines.
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.
French officials were refusing to characterize the episode as terrorism, but the anti-terrorism unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office immediately took charge of the investigation.
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 news media.
Passengers spoke of hearing gunshots as the train was traveling, and of seeing bloodied individuals rolling out into the grass when the train lurched to a stop during a chaotic few minutes of shooting.
France, on high alert after deadly terrorist attacks this year, immediately sent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to Arras, where he commended the two Americans who had helped “neutralize this extremely violent passenger,” praising them for their “great bravery.”
CNN, quoting an unidentified European counterterrorism official, said both Americans were Marines in plain clothes.
Police sources quoted in the French news media said the Americans thought they had heard the suspect loading ammunition into 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.
It was unclear how many weapons the gunman was carrying. French news accounts said he was armed with an automatic pistol, a Kalashnikov rifle and a knife.