France Awards Americans with Highest Honor After They Stopped Train Attack

Three Americans who prevented a possible massacre on a European train were awarded with The Legion of Honor, the highest honor in France, by the French government. Their awards were presented by President Francois Hollande.

One of the three men is serving in the Air Force and another one is a National Guard member. But it took the efforts of four men, one of them is a Briton, to stop the heavily armed attacker who started shooting at people on the train bound for Paris, The Washington Post reported.

French President Hollande said France is thankful to those four heroes that a catastrophe was prevented. "You have shown that in the face of terror, you can resist. So you have given us a lesson of courage, of determination and therefore of hope," Hollande said. He also named the Moroccan attacker for the first time. "There were over 500 passengers on that train. Ayoub el-Khazzani possessed over 300 bullets. And we realize now how close we were to a tragedy and a massacre," he added.

According to The Post, during his interrogation, Khazzani said his intention was to rob the train only, not to attack people on the train. As of now, it is not definite what the real motives of the attacker were but the incident raises questions about the security and safety of the trains in Europe.

Unlike the United States, the high-speed rail network of Europe is a vital part of continent's transportation, with trains carrying more people than flights do. Everyday, tens of thousands of European passengers from all walks of life prefer trains for their commute and fill the cabins.

Currently the majority of trains require no security checks prior to boarding, which might increase the risk of such attacks, but security experts says that changing the current practice might be almost impossible due to the density of the rail road transportation system, The Post reported.