Men awarded France's highest honor for foiling train attack

PARIS, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- French President Francois Hollande on Monday awarded the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honor, to the four men who helped prevent a potential gunman attack.

Americans Spencer Stone, 23, Alek Skarlatos, 22, Anthony Sadler, 23, and British citizen Chris Norman, 62, were honored by Hollande.

"You risked your lives to defend an idea, an idea of liberty, of freedom," Hollande told the men at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris. "Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity. This is what allowed you to [do that] with bare hands -- your bare hands -- to subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all, and a source of inspiration."

During a press conference in Paris on Sunday, Stone, a 1st Class Airman, appeared for the first time since the attack with his friends Anthony Sadler and Skarlatos, an Oregon National Guardsman and veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan.

With his left arm in a sling, his left hand bandaged and his right eye bloodshot, Stone told reporters he had been motivated by "survival" when he tackled 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayoub El Kahzzani, who on Friday exited a bathroom on a French train holding an automatic rifle.

"I turned around and I saw he had what looked to be an AK-47, and it looked like it was jammed or wasn't working and he was trying to charge the weapon," the BBC quoted Stone as saying. "Alek just hit me on the shoulder and said 'let's go' and ran down, tackled him. We hit the ground."

The Washington Post quoted the 23-year-old airman as saying Kahzzani, who was also armed with a Luger pistol and a box-cutter, "seemed like he was ready to fight to the end," adding, "So were we."

Stone, Sadler and Skarlatos, who had been vacationing in France at the time of the incident, were assisted by British national Chris Norman in restraining Kahzzani until authorities could arrive. Stone's thumb was nearly severed during the struggle, and he was forced to undergo an operation to have it reattached before Sunday's press conference.

Kahzzani told police that his motive was to rob the passengers, only planning to shoot out a window of the train.

"He's denying any terrorist or jihadist motive and says he was homeless and found the weapons abandoned in a suitcase in a Brussels park," a source close to the investigation told the Telegraph.

Fred Lambert contributed to this report.