Trial begins in France over foiled train attack which inspired Hollywood film

A police officer videos the crime scene inside a Thalys train at Arras train station, northern France, in 2015 (AP)

An operative for so-called Islamic State has gone on trial in Paris on terror charges for swaggering bare-chested through a train in 2015 with an arsenal of weapons and shooting one passenger.

Ayoub El Khazzani was brought down by three American tourists in an electrifying capture that Clint Eastwood turned into a Hollywood thriller.