How 2 U.S. service members saved passengers in train attack

The three men - a member of the Air Force, an inactive National Guard member and a civilian - have written their names in gold after they responded and prevented a deadly attack on a high-speed Thalys train passing through Belgium.

According to reports by CNN, the train was speeding through Belgium when the man identified as a Moroccan national with radical jihadist views, emerged from the train bathroom, shirtless with a rifle and an AK 47 slung over his shoulder with intent of wrecking havoc.

Narrating the incident to CNN, Anthony Sadler said, 'My friend Alek (Skarlatos) yells, 'Get him,' so my friend Spencer (Stone) immediately gets up to charge the guy, followed by Alek, then myself.

'The three of us beat up the guy, in the process Spencer gets slashed multiple times by the box cutter, and Alek takes the AK away.

'I begin to tie him up with help from Chris, another passenger. I notice a man had his throat cut at which Spencer begins to apply pressure to the neck wound before he bled out."

Speaking with CNN, Alek's brother, Peter Skarlatos said Spencer was cut in the head and neck and almost had his thumb cut off, but Alek had taken control of the rifle and hit the suspect in the head with the muzzle.

The train was rerouted to the French town of Arras, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris, where the Moroccan national, who was on the radar screen of European counterterrorism agencies, was placed under arrest.

The man had plenty of ammunition, the first official said, and the Americans prevented a massacre.

Two people were hospitalized with serious injuries but their lives are not in danger, said Anthony Blondeau, spokesman for the city of Arras. He said one of them was an American.

The third person injured was French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, who has a light hand injury, Blondeau said.