Three wounded in French train attack

A machine gun-toting attacker wounded three people on a high-speed train in France on Friday before being overpowered by passengers who included an American soldier.

Officials said the attacker was arrested after the shooting when the Amsterdam-to-Paris train stopped at Arras station in northern France.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the French anti-terrorism prosecutor was investigating the incident and that the gunman's motives were not known.

The wounded included the US citizen and French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, Cazeneuve said.

Chris Norman, a 62-year-old British consultant, told reporters he had been sitting in the same carriage as the Americans when they heard a shot. "I looked up and saw a guy carrying an AK-47 or at least I assume it was some kind of machine-gun," he said. "It could have been a real carnage, there's no question about that." Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old member of the US National Guard from Oregon, said his friend, who is also in the military, had been injured while he grappled with the gunman. They eventually got the attacker under control, Norman said.

"I just got back from Afghanistan last month, and this was my vacation from Afghanistan," Skarlatos said.

Gunman identified as Islamist militant
A gunman overpowered by passengers on a train in France on Friday was known to European authorities as a suspected Islamist militant, provided the identity he has given interrogators is correct, France's interior minister said. Two US servicemen, one of whom suffered knife wounds, were among passengers who stopped the gunman. "It is important to be careful about his identity which is not yet established with certainty," Cazeneuve said.