An undated photo released by a social network shows the 25-year-old Moroccan suspect in Friday’s shooting, named as Ayoub ElKhazzani.


AFP/Paris

French anti-terror investigators questioned yesterday a Moroccan man accused of a foiled attack on a crowded train, but he insists he was only trying to rob passengers, a lawyer said.
The heavily-armed alleged attacker, 25-year-old Ayoub ElKhazzani, is said to be “dumbfounded” by accusations that he was intending to carry out a terror attack despite being known to intelligence services in several countries for extremist links.
On Friday, he boarded a high-speed train in Brussels bound for Paris armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, Luger automatic pistol, ammunition and a box-cutter.
Witnesses say that he opened fire, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor by three American passengers and tied up.
One of the Americans, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, told a press conference yesterday that if Khazzani had known how to handle guns he could have killed many people.
“He clearly had no firearms training whatsoever,” he said. “If he knew what he was doing or even got lucky and did the right thing, he would have been able to operate through all eight of the (ammunition) magazines and we probably wouldn’t be here today along with a lot of other people.”
The Americans revealed that they had only moved into the carriage where the attack took place because they were in search of a better wi-fi signal (see accompanying report).  
Intelligence services in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain had previously flagged Khazzani as an Islamic extremist.
But he has denied any intention of waging a jihadist attack, telling investigators that he had merely stumbled upon a weapons stash in park in Belgium and decided to use it to rob passengers, according to Sophie David, a lawyer assigned to his case when he was taken off the train in Arras, northern France.
“He is dumbfounded that his act is being linked to terrorism,” David told BFM-TV, adding that the suspect who is believed to have lived in Belgium describes himself as homeless.
“He says that by chance he found a suitcase with a weapon, with a telephone, hidden away,” said David. “He said he found it in the park which is just next to the Midi Station in Brussels, where he often sleeps with other homeless people.
“He says that the Kalashnikov didn’t work and he was brought under control immediately without a single shot being fired.”
The lawyer is no longer representing Khazzani as he has been transferred to a police station near Paris for questioning.
Under French law, suspects in terrorism-related investigations can be questioned for up to 96 hours, meaning Khazzani could be held until tomorrow evening.
Brandishing the weapons, the attacker emerged from a toilet cubicle on the high-speed train just after it crossed from Belgium into northern France.
A French passenger who first encountered him tried to disarm Khazzani – described as “small, slim, not very strong” – but he got away and fired at least one shot, wounding a Franco-American traveller in his 50s.
However the attack was quickly stopped when two off-duty US servicemen and their friend Anthony Sadler, a student, charged at the gunman and restrained him.
French President Francois Hollande will personally thank the group for their bravery today.
A Spanish counter-terrorism source said Khazzani had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014.
He came to the attention of Spanish authorities for making hardline speeches defending jihad, and was once detained for drug trafficking, according to the source.
Spanish intelligence services say he went to France, from where he travelled to Syria, but the suspect has reportedly denied going to the conflict-ridden country where the Islamic State group controls swathes of territory.
A source close to the French probe, meanwhile, said he “lived in Belgium, got on the train in Belgium with weapons likely acquired in Belgium. And he had identity papers issued in Spain”.