'You gave a lesson in courage': France honours American and British heroes who disarmed train gunman
French leader said three Americans and Briton were an example to all
Three Americans and a Briton who tackled an attacker loaded with guns and ammunition prevented carnage on the high-speed train carrying 500 passengers to Paris, France's president said yesterday as he presented the men with the Legion of Honour and praised them as an example of the need for action when faced with terrorism.
President Francois Hollande said the two Americans who first tackled the gunman were soldiers, "but on Friday you were simply passengers. You behaved as soldiers but also as responsible men."
Hollande then pinned the Legion of Honour medal on US Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and their longtime friend Anthony Sadler, who subdued the gunman as he moved through the train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest. British businessman, Chris Norman, who also jumped into the fray, also received the medal.
A French passenger who also tackled the gunman was due to be honoured, but chose to stay anonymous.
The men showed "that faced with terror, we have the power to resist. You also gave a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope," Hollande said. Speaking as he left the Elysee, Norman said it was "a little bit difficult to believe that it's actually happened".
"I think that one way or another, we are going to be facing this kind of problem quite a few times in the future, and I would invite you all to think about 'what would I do in that situation'.
"Act if the opportunity presents itself. Obviously you don't want to throw yourself in a situation that is completely hopeless, but act if you can."
The Americans appeared slightly overwhelmed as they received France's highest honour.
His arm in a sling and his eye bruised, Stone, 23, has said he was coming out of a deep sleep when the gunman appeared. He thanked the doctors who reattached his thumb, which was almost severed by the gunman, who was armed with a box cutter, a pistol and a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. Skarlatos, a 22-year-old National Guardsman recently back from Afghanistan, "just hit me on the shoulder and said 'Let's go."'
With those words, Hollande said, a "veritable carnage" was avoided. "Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity. This is what allowed you to with bare hands - your bare hands - subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all, and a source of inspiration," Hollande said.
French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade injured his finger in Friday's incident, cutting it to the bone while activating the train's emergency alarm, he told magazine. Anglade said he had felt certain he, his two children and family were doomed.
The gunman, identified as 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani, was being questioned by counterterrorism police.
France remains on edge after Islamic extremists attacked the magazine and a Jewish shop in Paris in January in a spree that killed 17 people.
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 group.
In May last year, four people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
