France questions train attack gunman

The alleged attacker, a 25-year-old Moroccan national, has denied any intention of waging a militant attack, saying he had merely stumbled upon a weapons stash and decided to use it to rob passengers.

An undated photo released by a social network shows the 25-year-old Moroccan suspect in Friday’s shooting, named as Ayob El Khazzani, who was overpowered by two US servicemen and other passengers befoShow more

PARIS // French counter-terrorism officers on Sunday questioned a suspected extremist gunman who was overpowered by passengers on a packed train, as it emerged he had been flagged by intelligence services in at least four European countries.

The alleged attacker, named as 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayob El Khazzani, opened fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle on Friday evening, but was wrestled to the floor by three American passengers, aided by a British man.

According to an initial probe, Mr Khazzani has denied any intention of waging a militant attack, saying he had merely stumbled upon a weapons stash and decided to use it to rob passengers.

But he was flagged as an extremist by intelligence services in several countries, and French investigators are focusing on an extremist attack.

Under French law, suspects in probes related to alleged terrorism can be questioned for up to 96 hours, which means Mr Khazzani could remain in custody until Tuesday evening.

Armed with the weapons, the attacker exited a toilet cubicle on the high-speed train just after it crossed from Belgium into northern France.

A French passenger who happened to be there tried to disarm Mr Khazzani but he got away and fired at least one shot, wounding a Franco-American traveller.

But the attack was quickly stopped when two off-duty US servicemen and their friend charged the gunman and restrained him.

“I looked back and saw a guy enter with a Kalashnikov. My friends and I got down and then I said ‘Let’s get him’,” Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old member of the National Guard in Oregon who recently returned from Afghanistan, told France’s BFMTV.

The gunman slashed Spencer Stone, who serves in the US air force, in the neck and almost sliced off his thumb with a box-cutter.

“At that point I showed up and grabbed the gun from him and basically started beating him in the head until he fell unconscious,” said Mr Skarlatos.

His friend Anthony Sadler, a 23-year-old student at Sacramento State University, and a British business consultant, Chris Norman, then helped keep the man subdued.

Mr Khazzani was arrested when the train with 554 passengers aboard stopped at Arras station in northern France.

The shooting underlines the difficulties faced by intelligence services in tracking an unprecedented number of suspected extremists.

A Spanish counterterrorism source said Mr Khazzani had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014.

During his time in Spain, he came to the attention of authorities for making hardline speeches defending extremism, and was once detained for drug trafficking, according to the source.

Spanish intelligence services say he went to France, from where he travelled to Syria, but the suspect has reportedly denied going to the conflict-ridden country where the ISIL group controls large areas of territory.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Spanish intelligence services had tipped off France over his ties to “radical Islamist movements”, but it is unclear whether he lived in France at any time after leaving Spain.

German security services, meanwhile, flagged M r Khazzani when he boarded a flight from Berlin to Istanbul in May this year and in Belgium, justice minister Koen Geens confirmed Mr Khazzani was known to the country’s intelligence services.

France has been on high alert since radicalised gunmen went on the rampage in January, killing 17 people in Paris, and authorities have since thwarted several other attacks.

* Agence France-Presse