French train attack: Briton and three Americans honoured for foiling gunman

The Briton and three Americans who overpowered a gunman on a crowded train today received France’s highest honour.

President François Hollande praised the men for their bravery as he awarded them the Legion d’Honneur at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

Mr Hollande said Chris Norman, 62, and Americans — US Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone and student Anthony Sadler, both 23, and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, 22 — were “heroes”.

Mr Hollande said: “We are here to honour four men who, thanks to their bravery, managed to save lives. They showed what could be done in terrible circumstances. In the name of France, I would like to thank you.

“The whole world admires your bravery. It should be an example to all of us and inspire us. You put your lives at risk in order to defend freedom.”

The gunman, Ayoub El-Khazzani, 25, has been moved to a high-security police station near Paris after being overpowered in nearby Arras on Friday. He was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, a Luger pistol and a box-cutter blade. Mark Moogalian, 51, an American-born French national who tried to stop the gunman, is in hospital with gunshot wounds. He is expected to receive the Legion d’Honneur later.

Intelligence services have suggested that El-Khazzani, a Moroccan national, is an Islamist extremist. But the gunman claimed he had stumbled across the weapons in a park in Belgium and decided to use them to rob the passengers travelling from Brussels to Paris.

His lawyer, Sophie David, said: “He is dumbfounded that his act is being linked to terrorism.”