A Moroccan man and three alleged accomplices go on trial in France for an attempted terror attack on an Amsterdam-Paris train five years ago that was foiled by passengers whose heroic actions were turned into a Hollywood film.
Director Clint Eastwood, 90, is on the witness list for the trial in Paris, scheduled to last until December 17. It is believed his 2018 film “The 15:17 to Paris” will serve as a reconstruction of the events of August 21, 2015.
Gunman Ayoub El Khazzani was tackled by passengers shortly after emerging bare-chested and heavily armed from a toilet on a Thalys high-speed train.
There were some 150 passengers in the carriage with Khazzani, who had an AK47 slung over his back, and a bag of nearly 300 rounds of ammunition.
Police officers stand on the platform at the Zuid-Midi railway station in Brussels, on August 22, 2015, a day after a shooting occurred on board an Amsterdam-Paris Thalys train (AFP/BELGA/Nicolas Maeterlinck)
One of them, Franco-American professor Mark Moogalian, grabbed Khazzani’s assault rifle as he emerged.
The attacker took a pistol out of his belt, shot and wounded Moogalian, and reclaimed the AK47 only to be tackled afresh and disarmed by two US soldiers — Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos — who heard the commotion from a neighboring carriage.
— AFP
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