US tourists ‘thwarted slaughter’ with train attack heroics that inspired film

Passengers walk through a metal detector at the Grare du Nord train station in Paris, installed in response to the attack (Christophe Ena/AP)

An operative of so-called Islamic State listened silently as a Paris judge detailed his alleged plot to unleash mass slaughter on a high-speed train before he was tackled and subdued by American tourists whose heroics inspired a Hollywood film.

Opening a month-long trial for Ayoub El Khazzani, the judge said the 31-year-old Moroccan with ties to a notorious terror mastermind intended to “kill all the passengers” aboard the Amsterdam to Paris train in 2015 but “lost control of events”.