French Legion Of Honor, French President Francois Hollande awarded France's highest honor Monday to three Americans and a Briton who tackled a gunman on a train from Amsterdam to Paris.
Hollande presented the Legion d'Honneur to U.S. nationals Spencer Stone, 23, Alek Skarlatos, 22, Anthony Sadler, 23, and British citizen Chris Norman, 62.
A French citizen who also tackled the man in the incident Friday and who wishes to remain anonymous and a French-American named by Hollande as Mark Moogalian, 51, will also receive the Legion d'Honneur at a later date. Moogalian, who was shot, remains in a hospital.
"'You risked your lives to defend an idea, an idea of liberty, of freedom," Hollande told the men at the ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
"Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity," he said. "This is what allowed you to with bare hands — your bare hands — to subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all, and a source of inspiration.”
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and Jane Hartley, the U.S. Ambassador to France, were among those who attended the ceremony.U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Stone, 23, and his friends Skarlatos, 22, an Oregon National Guardsman, and Sadler, 23, a student at Sacramento State University, were on the high-speed train, which was traveling via Belgium, when a man armed with a Kalashnikov, an automatic Luger pistol and a box cutter raced through the car. The men tackled and subdued the gunman, who was taken into custody in France.
"He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," Stone said. "So were we." Stone was stabbed in the neck and thumb, which had to be reattached.
Norman, an IT consultant who helped subdue the gunman, said he thought: "OK, I'm probably going to die anyway so let's go," the Guardian reported.
French authorities identified the gunman as Ayoub El-Khazzani, 26, a Moroccan with ties to radical Islam who may have traveled to Syria. His lawyer, Sophie David, said on French TV that her client claims he was just homeless and hungry and wanted to rob the train and then jump out a window.
Hollande presented the Legion d'Honneur to U.S. nationals Spencer Stone, 23, Alek Skarlatos, 22, Anthony Sadler, 23, and British citizen Chris Norman, 62.
A French citizen who also tackled the man in the incident Friday and who wishes to remain anonymous and a French-American named by Hollande as Mark Moogalian, 51, will also receive the Legion d'Honneur at a later date. Moogalian, who was shot, remains in a hospital.
"'You risked your lives to defend an idea, an idea of liberty, of freedom," Hollande told the men at the ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
"Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity," he said. "This is what allowed you to with bare hands — your bare hands — to subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all, and a source of inspiration.”
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and Jane Hartley, the U.S. Ambassador to France, were among those who attended the ceremony.U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Stone, 23, and his friends Skarlatos, 22, an Oregon National Guardsman, and Sadler, 23, a student at Sacramento State University, were on the high-speed train, which was traveling via Belgium, when a man armed with a Kalashnikov, an automatic Luger pistol and a box cutter raced through the car. The men tackled and subdued the gunman, who was taken into custody in France.
"He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," Stone said. "So were we." Stone was stabbed in the neck and thumb, which had to be reattached.
Norman, an IT consultant who helped subdue the gunman, said he thought: "OK, I'm probably going to die anyway so let's go," the Guardian reported.
French authorities identified the gunman as Ayoub El-Khazzani, 26, a Moroccan with ties to radical Islam who may have traveled to Syria. His lawyer, Sophie David, said on French TV that her client claims he was just homeless and hungry and wanted to rob the train and then jump out a window.
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