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Scene-of-crime experts were quickly summoned
Three American men are being hailed as heroes for overpowering a heavily-armed gunman on a train in northern France.
The incident happened on the high-speed Thalys service near Arras, and the attacker was arrested at Arras station.
US President Barack Obama praised the passengers, who included two off-duty US military personnel.
The man arrested was a 26-year-old Moroccan. Anti-terrorist officers have taken over the case.
The gunman’s weapons were said to include a Kalashnikov, a knife, an automatic pistol and cartridges.
French authorities said three people were injured, two of them seriously – one with a gunshot wound, the other a knife wound.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the attack took place at 17:45 local time (15:45 GMT) on Friday.
French media said the arrested man was known to the intelligence services but he has so far refused to talk to police in Arras.
Two of the American men who overpowered the gunman, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, are members of the Air Force and the National Guard respectively.
They heard the man loading a weapon in a toilet cubicle and confronted him when he came out.
“As he was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, `Spencer, go!’ And Spencer runs down the aisle,” said their friend Anthony Sadler, who was travelling with them.
“Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious.”
Social worker Christina Coons from New York was on the train and told BBC Radio 5 Live she had ducked under her seat when she heard shots.
She said she saw a man running through her carriage bleeding heavily from the neck who identified himself as a paramedic.
She said: “None of these men were in uniform. They were just regular passengers, this afternoon, who stepped up to the plate as soon as they saw what was happening.”
The passengers included French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, the star of Betty Blue and Nikita, who was lightly wounded breaking glass to sound the alarm.
Chris Norman, a British man living in France, was also hurt. He and the American men were awarded medals for bravery by authorities in Arras.
Mr Cazeneuve said the passengers were “particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances”, adding: “Without their composure we could have been confronted with a terrible incident.”
“The president expressed his profound gratitude for the courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including US service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker,” the White House said in a statement.
“It is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy.”
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel called the incident a “terrorist attack”.
Images shared on social media appeared to show a man being restrained on the station platform in Arras.
One photograph showed an injured man in a blue top and jeans lying on the floor of the train.
French rail firm SNCF said there had been 554 people on board the train.
BBC