France gives Legion of Honor to four who stopped train attack

Hollande then pinned the Legion of Honor medal on Stone, 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.

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.

Norman, speaking in French after receiving the medal, said it was less a question of heroism than survival.

“I hope this doesn't happen to you, but I ask you to really think: OK, what will I do if this happens? Am I going to simply stand still or am I going to try to be active if the situation presents itself?” he said.

The alleged attacker, 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani, is said 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.

Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler said they had no choice but to react when they saw the gunman cocking his assault rifle. Stone said he choked him while Skarlatos hit him on the head with one of his firearms. Stone's and Skarlatos' military training kicked in while they provided first aid and searched the train to make sure there were no other gunmen, they said.

The Americans, casual in vacation-style polo shirts and khakis against the backdrop of the highly formal presidential palace, appeared slightly overwhelmed as they received France's highest honor.

Hollande said the men helped avoid a “veritable carnage.”

“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.

Khazzani is detained and being questioned by French counterterrorism police outside Paris. Khazzani's lawyer, Sophie David, told Le Monde newspaper the gunman is ill-educated, emaciated, and told her he had spent the past six months traveling between Belgium, Germany and Austria, as well as France and Andorra. She said he told her he only intended to rob the train with a cache of guns he came across in a public garden near the train station and is “dumbfounded” that it is being treated as an act of terrorism.

“The only terrorism he is guilty of is terrorism for bread, he doesn't have enough money to feed himself properly,” Khazzani's father told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo spoke from his home in Algeciras, southern Spain.

But Skarlatos disputed what Khazzani's lawyer and father said. 

“It doesn't take eight magazines to rob a train,” Skarlatos said. “The guy had a lot of ammo. His intentions seemed pretty clear.”

Wire services