France awards Legion of Honour to men who disarmed train gunman

Four men who helped disarm a gunman on an Amsterdam to Paris train have been awarded France’s highest honour. French President François Hollande presented the Legion of Honour to a Briton and three Americans during a ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

“Your heroism will serve as an example and a source of inspiration to many. Faced with the evil that is terrorism, there is some good: humanity. That is what you embody,” said Hollande.

A moving ceremony this morning - president Hollande decorates the American heroes with the French Legion of honor. pic.twitter.com/uaN5ZTIlB0

— Eleanor Beardsley (@ElBeardsley) August 24, 2015

Two others will be honoured at a later date. Franco-American professor Mark Moogalian is in hospital with a gunshot wound, while a French man who initially tackled the gunman is said to wish to remain anonymous.

The French authorities are questioning twenty-five-year-old Moroccan national Ayoub El-Khazzani, who is believed to have links to radical Islam.

He was found in possession of a Kalashnikov, a pistol, ammunition and a box cutter, however his lawyer refutes claims he is a terrorist, saying instead the suspect was intending to rob other passengers.