I was ‘doing my best to kill or contain him’

ONE OF THE THREE Americans who accosted an alleged Islamic State gunman aboard a Paris-bound train told a court that he did “everything he could” to kill the attacker.

Testifying at the suspect’s trial, Alek Skarlatos said he took a gun out of the attacker’s hand, aimed it and pulled the trigger.

However, the gun did not fire.

Skarlatos said, “Honestly, I was doing everything possible to kill or contain him.”

Ayoub El Khazzani, the suspect in the attack, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of attempted terrorist murder. The 31-year-old Moroccan is on trial with three alleged accomplices.

Testimonies this week from passengers who disarmed the attacker on the train from Amsterdam have highlighted split-second decisions that thwarted what could have turned into a mass massacre.

The heroic acts of the passengers on August 21, 2015 inspired Clint Eastwood to direct a Hollywood film that recreates the dramatic events, called ‘3:17 PM in Paris’.

Skarlatos and two friends, with whom he grew up in California, were on vacation at the time.

A friend, Spencer Stone, immobilized the attacker in absolute dominance. Skarlatos moved too, accompanied by another passenger once the gunman was on the ground.

Skarlatos said the gunman was “surprisingly difficult to control.”

With the attacker subdued, the train was diverted to Arras in northern France, where El Khazzani was arrested.

Authorities say El Khazzani boarded the train in Brussels armed with the Kalashnikov, nine loaders with 30 rounds each, an automatic pistol and a cutter.

Once on board the train, El Khazzani lingered in a bathroom between the carriages, where two other passengers confronted him and then emerged bare-chested and armed.