DHAKA: Three people have been injured after a heavily armed man opened fire in a ‘terrorist attack’ on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris, before he was overpowered by two American passengers.

The man had a Kalashnikov, an automatic pistol, ammunition and a box cutter in his luggage, one police source told the media after Friday’s incident, Al Jazeera publishes this report on Saturday.

The suspect, who was arrested at a railway station in the northern French town of Arras, was a 26-year-old of Moroccan origin who was known to the intelligence services, French investigators said.

The motives for the shooting were not immediately known, although French prosecutors said counterterrorism investigators had taken over the probe.

‘I condemn the terrorist attack on the Thalys (train) and express my sympathy to the victims,’ Charles Michel, Belgian prime minister, said on Twitter of the incident which occurred while the train was on Belgian territory.

French President Francois Hollande and Michel agreed in a telephone call to ‘cooperate closely’ in the investigation, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.

‘Everything is being done to shed light’ on the shooting, Hollande said.

BDST: 1310 HRS, AUG 22, 2015
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