Attack puts rail security in spotlight

Police officers work on a platform next to a Thalys train at Arras train station, northern France, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris Friday, wounding three people before being subdued by two American passengers, officials said. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspected was detained, said one of the Americans was hospitalized with serious wounds. (AP Photo)

Security on European railways has been cranked up after a gunman allegedly opened fire on a train between Paris and Amsterdam.

The alleged attacker, named as 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayob El Khazzani, opened fire with an assault rifle on Friday evening (local time), but was wrestled to the floor by three American passengers.

The suspected gunman boarded the Amsterdam-Paris express in Brussels on Friday with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter, investigators say.

Courageous intervention by a trio of young Americans who overwhelmed the attacker prevented a possible massacre.

“I looked back and saw a guy enter with a Kalashnikov. My friends and I got down and then I said, ‘Let’s get him’,” Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old member of the National Guard in Oregon, told reporters.

Spencer Stone, a US Air Force serviceman, reached the gunman first and was slashed in the neck and hand with a box-cutter.

“At that point I showed up and grabbed the gun from him and basically started beating him in the head until he fell unconscious,” Skarlatos said, who recently returned from service in Afghanistan.

According to The Guardian, the name of the gunman was confirmed by French police as Ayoub el-Khazani, a 25-year-old Moroccan, known to Belgian, French and Spanish authorities, who travelled to fight in Syria last year, prompting the belief that the attack was linked to Islamic State.

As a result, rail security issues have been raised as needing tougher security checks, following in the footsteps of airports that upped security post 9/11.

In the wake of the episode, Belgium said it would increase baggage checks and patrols on high-speed trains.

And France said its state-run rail firm, the SNCF, would introduce an emergency hotline to report “abnormal situations”.

Experts say these are valuable tools in the fight against terrorism.

But at the same time, these fast-track measures also highlight an underlying problem: applying airport-style security to railway stations is almost impossible.

“The idea of extending the airport system to railway stations today isn’t something that I can call realistic,” SNCF head Guillaume Pepy said.

“There’s a choice – you either have comprehensive security or low (transport) efficiency.”

Railway hubs were built in the 19th and 20th centuries when today’s types of terror threats were inconceivable.

As a result, main stations are designed to have a maximum free flow of people on and off trains, with sometimes dozens of departures or arrivals at peak times.

They are served by a network of smaller stations – 3000 of them in France alone.

“Airplanes leave from a specific place – you can build a security apparatus around it,” said Raffaello Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“It’s just not possible to do that with trains. You would have to do that at every station.”

In the absence of regular station screening, watchdogs have to rely on high-visibility patrols, spot checks, enrolling the public in campaigns for greater vigilance, installing video surveillance cameras and beefing up co-ordination between police and railway security.

The notable exception in Europe for security screening is the cross-Channel Eurostar service, which connects Britain to France and Belgium.

It subjects passengers to pre-departure baggage and ID checks.

But this is largely because of Britain not being part of the joint Schengen passport-free zone, as well as security measures required for travel through the Channel Tunnel.

The baggage screening, too, is less demanding than at airports. Items are examined under an X-ray but liquids are not confiscated.

“The key need is to secure the Thalys and a certain number of high-speed trains,” Ivaldi said, referring to the service on which Friday’s attack occurred.

In Italy, passengers departing from some major stations have since May 1 been subject to security checks before boarding.

Railway security has been tightened too, in Spain.

Co-ordinated bomb attacks on on Madrid’s commuter rail network on March 11, 2004 left 191 dead and 1800 injured. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Spain’s recent history.

Today, passengers boarding long-distance trains have their luggage checked.

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