French President Francois Hollande has presented three US citizens and a Briton with the Legion d'Honneur medal in recognition of their bravery in stopping a gunman on a packed train.
Airman Spencer Stone, 23, and his friends, student Anthony Sadler, 23 and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, 22, along with 62-year-old Briton Chris Norman were honoured at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace this morning.
Mr Hollande said: "A terrorist decided to commit an attack. He had enough weapons and ammunition to carry out a real carnage, and that's what he would have done if you hadn't tackled him at a risk to your own lives.
"You have shown us that, faced with terror, we have the power to resist. You have given a message of courage, solidarity and hope."
Mr Hollande added: "I did not want you to return to your countries without receiving this honour.
"Faced with the peril of terrorism, it's in refusing to back down, in refusing to be afraid, it's by standing up together that we overcome."
A French citizen who also tackled the gunman, but wishes to remain anonymous, is to receive the honour at a later date, as will a Franco-American passenger recovering from being shot during the attack, a source said.
Mr Stone told a press conference yesterday that the French man "deserves a lot of credit" because he was the first one to try to stop the gunman, who authorities have identified as 26-year-old Moroccan national Ayoub el Khazzani.
The Legion d'Honneur, France's highest accolade, was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is awarded in recognition of both civil and military achievements.
The train passengers were awarded the Chevalier de l'ordre national de la Legion d'Honneur, or Knight of the national Order of the Legion of Honour.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley and members of France's government all attended the award ceremony.
Mr El Kkhazzani opened fire on the Paris-bound train on Friday, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor and subdued.
Possible movements of alleged train gunman pic.twitter.com/DNMBE7qmqG
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) August 24, 2015
He has denied that he intended to carry out a terror attack, claiming he only planned to rob the passengers on the train.
Mr Stone recalled how he used his fingers to stem the flow of blood from a neck wound another passenger sustained in the incident.
"I went over, saw that he was squirting blood out of the left or right side of his neck," Mr Stone said.
"And I was going to use my shirt at first, but I realised that wasn't going to work, so I just stuck two of my fingers in the hole, found what I thought to be the artery, pushed down and the bleeding stopped."
Mr Stone held that position until paramedics arrived.
The man whom Mr Stone helped remains hospitalised, but US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley said at the news conference that he was "doing pretty well."
Mr Stone sustained a serious hand injury during the attack and thanked doctors who reattached his thumb, which was almost severed by the gunman, who was armed with a boxcutter, a pistol and a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle.
The three Americans, who grew up together near Sacramento, in California, were touring Europe, partly to celebrate Mr Skarlatos' return from a recent tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Mr Norman is a consultant who lives in France.
Mr Skarlatos has disputed a statement the gunman made, through a lawyer, that he just wanted to rob the train because he was hungry.
"It doesn't take eight magazines to rob a train," Mr Skarlatos said. "The guy had a lot of ammo. His intentions seemed pretty clear."
