Minutes before he slung an assault rifle across his chest and walked through a high-speed train, the Moroccan suspect in the foiled attack watched a jihadi video on his cell-phone, the French prosecutor said in formally opening a terrorism investigation on Tuesday.
The actions by Ayoub el-Khazzani on the Amsterdam-to-Paris train on Friday night and information from other European authorities on his travels and apparent links to radical Islam prompted the investigation, said prosecutor Francois Molins.
Averting a carnage
El-Khazzani (26) was tackled and tied up by five passengers, including three Americans and a Briton, averting what President Francois Hollande said “could have degenerated into monstrous carnage.”
During questioning by authorities, El-Khazzani said he had no terrorism plans and had found a bag of weapons on Thursday in a Brussels park and planned to use them to rob passengers, Mr. Molins said. But the suspect grew less and less lucid as he gave his explanation, the prosecutor added, and eventually stopped talking to investigators altogether.
Had first-class ticket
One reason investigators suspect a premeditated attack was that El-Khazzani, who claimed to be homeless and living in a Brussels park, used a first-class ticket, Mr. Molins said. The suspect refused to take an earlier train, he added, although there were seats available “the sign of a planned project.”
Besides the assault rifle, El-Khazzani had 270 rounds of ammunition, a pistol, a box-cutter and a bottle of gasoline, Mr. Molins said.
Small explosive found
Prosecutors also said they found a small explosive like those used in the tips of missiles hidden in the glass box containing the hammer used to break train windows in case of emergency. They did not elaborate.
“El-Khazzani watched a video of Islamic preaching onboard” on YouTube on his mobile phone shortly before he got up to start walking through the train with the weapons, Mr. Molins told reporters at a news conference. The suspect’s phone was found in a bag left on the train.
The gunman was subdued by a group of three American friends and a British businessman. Another man who tried to stop him was a French-American named Mark Moogalian, who remained hospitalised with a gunshot wound.
Many charges against him
With the formal investigation opened, investigating magistrates are expected to file numerous preliminary charges against El-Khazzani, including multiple counts of attempted murder in connection with terrorism, possession of weapons in connection with terrorism, and participation in a terrorist conspiracy.
The suspect had travelled through several European countries and had been repeatedly incarcerated in Spain and flagged for surveillance in France, Mr. Molins said. After five to seven months in 2014 in France, he lived in Brussels, Cologne and Vienna.
French surveillance helped authorities spot the suspect on a May 10 flight from Berlin to Istanbul, then a return flight from Antakya, Turkey, to Tirana, Albania, via Istanbul, Mr. Molins said. El-Khazzani denied going to Turkey.
Preventing such attacks
The train incident has highlighted growing difficulties in protecting public spaces from individual attackers.
In his speech on Tuesday, the French President said the country remained “exposed” to violent extremism, and “this aggression is new proof that we should prepare ourselves for other assaults.”
The prosecutor said El-Khazzani boarded the train on Friday at a Brussels station.
Investigators in Brussels searched two buildings in the Molenbeek-Saint Jean neighbourhood where the suspect may have stayed, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. No one was detained, although investigators said they seized “some objects” for further examination. The statement did not elaborate.
According to French law, authorities must file preliminary charges against El-Khazzani by Tuesday night or seek a special extension to his temporary custody.
The next step will be determining where his weapons came from, how he financed them, and whether he had any accomplices, Mr. Molins said.
One of the Americans who helped thwart the attack, U.S. Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, flew to a U.S. military base in southern Germany, where he was treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre and was doing well, said spokesman Chuck Roberts. Mr. Stone, who arrived on Monday, seemed to be in good spirits, smiling and shaking hands with officials at the hospital.
