On Friday Ayoub El Khazzani boarded a train from Brussels to Paris with a Kalashnikov, a handgun and a bag full of ammo. He was tackled and hogtied by three Americans after he tried to slaughter the passengers on the train.



Khazzani’s father told reporters his son was a “good boy” who was misled by European officials who sold him empty promises and then dumped him on the street.

Ayoub El Khazzani returned from Syria last year and was known to security officials.

The Daily Mail reported:

Thwarted train gunman Ayoub El Khazzani has laughed at accusations he was trying to carry out a terrorist attack on the Amsterdam to Paris express, his lawyer has claimed.

Morocco-born El Khazzani, 26, says he does not see why his actions on the Thalys train on Friday have caused such an outcry and insisted that he was only interested in ‘robbing the passengers’.

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His lawyer, Sophie David, said the gunman appeared ‘very, very thin and very haggard’ when she met with him at a police station in Arras, northern France.

Meanwhile, the suspect’s father defended him as a ‘good boy’ today, and insisted that he would never want to kill anyone.

Scrap dealer Mohamed Khazzani, 64, broke down in tears as he recalled the moment police knocked on the door of his rundown flat to tell him his son had been arrested with a Kalashnikov on board a packed Paris-bound high-speed train.

The greying dad-of-six, who lives in the southern Spanish port city of Algeciras after emigrating from his native Morocco, told MailOnline: ‘They’re saying Ayoub is a terrorist but I just cannot believe what I am hearing.

‘I haven’t eaten anything or slept since the police came round yesterday.

‘They asked me if I knew where he was and when I said France they told me he had got himself into serious trouble and explained what had happened.

‘I’m still in shock and haven’t even told my wife Zahara yet who is in Morocco visiting relatives and won’t be back until later this week.’

He added: ‘There was no work for him here and it’s the only reason he went [to France].

‘You should ask them why they’re doing that to young people, selling them empty promises and then dumping them on the street.’

Speaking in broken Spanish despite his six years in the southern Spanish port of Algeciras, he added: ‘My son a terrorist? The only terrorism he is guilty of is terrorism for bread because he hasn’t got enough money to feed himself properly.’