France train attack heroes to be awarded top honour

Four men are to be awarded France’s highest honour – the Légion d’honneur – by the president, Francois Hollande, on Monday for their roles in stopping a suspected terrorist attack on a train last week, The Guardian reports.

The four men; Spencer Stone, off duty US airman,  Alek Skarlatos, a member of the US National Guard, US student Anthony Sadler and Briton Chris Norman  all helped to wrestle a suspected jihadi gunman to the ground after he opened fire on the train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris.

A French passenger, who wants to remain anonymous, and a French-American man who was shot during the attack will receive the award at a later date.

62-year-old Norman, is a businessman who was reportedly born in Uganda and raised in South Africa, but holds a British passport. He went to the University of Reading, before moving to the south of France and running a business as an IT consultant to companies in Africa.

He told reporters that, once he got over his initial fear when the gunman emerged and opened fire, he decided to act, telling himself: “I would rather die being active trying to get him down than simply sit in the corner and be shot.”

The three US friends, who grew up together in California, were reportedly sleeping in their first-class seats on Friday evening when they heard a noise that sounded like shattered glass behind them and saw a shirtless man running in with a Kalashnikov.

Spencer Stone, a 6ft 2in off-duty airman and martial arts fan, took the biggest risk as he ran forward 10 metres to tackle him.

“I just woke up from a deep sleep and Alek was sitting next to me,” Stone said. “I turned around and I saw [the gunman] had an AK47 and it looked like it was jammed – he was trying to charge the weapon. Alek just hit me on the shoulder and said ‘Let’s go!’ And I ran down, tackled him, Alek ran up and grabbed the gun out of his hand while I put him in a chokehold,” the Guardian quotes.

In the struggle, the 25-year-old Moroccan suspect, Ayoud El-Khazzani, wielded a box-cutter and Stone, who is stationed at Lajes airbase in the Azores, almost had his thumb sliced off. Medics stitched it back on to his hand after the confrontation.

Asked to describe El-Khazzani, who is still being questioned by security officials, Stone said: “He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end. So were we.”

 Stone and his friends tied up El-Khazzani with the help of Norman, who took the gunman’s right arm and used his tie as a rope, and an off-duty French train driver, who held down the other arm.