A heroic Greek American prevented chaos on a train from Amsterdam to Paris last week after an armed gunman opened fire.
US National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, along with fellow serviceman Spencer Stone and student Anthony Sadler, overpowered a 26-year-old Moroccan national who burst into their train carriage with heavy artillery.
Skarlatos was on a European holiday when the events took place, having recently completing a tour of Afghanistan, and spoke to Sky News following the ordeal.
“I just looked at Spencer and said ‘let’s go!’,” Skarlatos told the network.
“Spencer got to the guy first, grabbed the guy by the neck and I grabbed the handgun, got the handgun away from the guy and threw it.
“Then I grabbed the AK (assault rifle), which was at his feet, and started muzzle thumping him in the head with it.”
Throughout the struggle the suspect pulled out a box-cutter which he used on Stone, who later required surgery on his hand.
Once the man was detained Skarlatos disarmed his weapons, at which point he realised the assault rifle had jammed.
“He didn’t know how to fix it, which is very lucky,” he said.
“If that guy’s weapon had been functioning properly I don’t even want to think about how it would have gone. We were incredibly lucky.”
“We just did what we had to do. You either run away or fight. We chose to fight and got lucky and didn’t die.”
Skarlatos, along with Stone, Sadler and a British passenger Chris Norman, were all presented with France’s highest honour – the Legion of Honour – by French President François Hollande.
Another man, Mark Moogalian, who assisted in restraining the suspect, is recovering from a shot wound in hospital and will be honoured at a later date.
The suspect has since been arrested.