By: Lisa Bryant
Source: VOA News
PARIS— France says the man who attacked Friday a train between Amsterdam and Paris appears to have been under investigation in Spain for links to militant Islam. French authorities are now questioning him and security has been stepped up at airports and stations around the country.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said authorities were still trying to identify the man who opened fire on a packed train heading to Paris the day before.
If his tentative identity is confirmed, the French minister said the gunman may be a 26-year-old Moroccan who lived in Spain last year before moving to Belgium.
Cazeneuve said Spanish authorities had flagged him to their French counterparts because he belonged to a radical Islamist movement.
Cazeneuve did not confirm media reports identifying the assailant by name or that he has traveled to Syria. But he said Belgium also has opened a probe and other European investigators will join efforts to trace his movements.
The attack took place while the high-speed train, operated by Thalys, was traveling through Belgium with 554 people on board.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel condemned what he called “the terrorist attack” and said he and French President Francois Hollande are working closely on the investigation.
Thalys is partly owned by the French and Belgian railways.
Americans overpower gunman
French and U.S. authorities have hailed the courage of the American passengers who tackled and subdued the gunman, who was carrying several weapons including a Kalashnikov assault rifle. French President Francois Hollande spoke with them on Saturday.
Anthony Sadler, a U.S. student, said he and two of his friends in the U.S. military were able to subdue the attacker and help others who had been wounded.
“I’m just a college student, it’s my last year in college, I came to see my friends on my first trip in Europe and we stopped a terrorist, it’s kind of crazy,” Sadler told reporters.
The other two were Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos. Stone remains hospitalized after being stabbed in the attack. His injuries are not life threatening.
White House reaction
In Washington, a White House official confirmed that U.S. service members were among those who overpowered the attacker.
“The president expressed his profound gratitude for the courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including U.S. service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker,” the official said.
France has been on high alert since January’s terrorist attacks in Paris, and authorities say they have foiled several terrorist plots since then. In June, extremist Yasfsin Salhi decapitated a man near the French city of Lyon.