Paris train attack suspect ‘dumbfounded’ by allegations, lawyer says

A man overpowered by passengers on a crowded train is "dumbfounded" by terrorism allegations and said he was homeless and had boarded the train intending to rob people, a lawyer who had been representing him said in comments broadcast Sunday.

Sophie David, a lawyer who was assigned to represent Ayob el-Khazzani at the beginning of his detention in the French city of Arras — but who is no longer defending him — said Khazzani denies firing a single shot.

The alleged attacker, a 25-year-old Moroccan national, is alleged to have boarded a high-speed Thalys train in Brussels on Friday evening bound for Paris armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter.

Witnesses say he opened fire, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor by two U.S. servicemen and tied up with the help of two other men until the train stopped in Arras where he was taken into police custody.

"He is dumbfounded that his act is being linked to terrorism," David told BFM-TV, adding the suspect, who is believed to have lived in Belgium, describes himself as a homeless man.

"He says that by chance he found a suitcase with a weapon, with a telephone, hidden away,” David said. “He said he found it in the park which is just next to the Midi Station in Brussels, where he often sleeps with other homeless people." 

According to Khazzani, who does not speak French and whose comments were translated by an interpreter, he boarded the train to rob people, and had intended to break a window and jump out to escape.

David said that when she told him some people were injured, he was "flabbergasted."

"He says that the Kalashnikov didn't work and he was brought under control immediately without a single shot being fired," David said.

She is no longer his lawyer as Khazzani has since been transferred to a facility in Levallois-Perret, near Paris, where he is being questioned by counterterrorism officers.

Agence France-Presse