Pittsburg native helps subdue gunman on Paris-bound train

(From L) Anthony Sadler, from Pittsburg, California, Alek Skarlatos from Roseburg, Oregon, and British national Chris Norman who is living in France, hold their medals as they sit in a restaurant after a brief ceremony in the town of Arras, northern France, on August 21, 2015. The American servicemen overpowered a gunman armed with a Kalashnikov who opened fire on a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris on August 20, 2015. less (From L) Anthony Sadler, from Pittsburg, California, Alek Skarlatos from Roseburg, Oregon, and British national Chris Norman who is living in France, hold their medals as they sit in a restaurant after a brief ... more Photo: -, AFP / Getty Images Photo: -, AFP / Getty Images Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Pittsburg native helps subdue gunman on Paris-bound train 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

Two Northern California men have become international heroes after helping take down a gunman who opened fire on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris.

Anthony Sadler helped two other American passengers — Spencer Stone of Sacramento and Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg, Ore. — subdue a 26-year-old suspect who allegedly walked into a train car brandishing an automatic rifle.

Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, was born in Pittsburg and grew up in Rancho Cordova. He was traveling with Stone and Skarlatos, a National Guardsman, childhood friends.

The Faces of three badasses L-R Americans Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone ,Anthony Sadler http://t.co/VBFczVsJWI pic.twitter.com/9skcLOiHMM — Paul Anderson (@paulzpc) August 22, 2015

Both Stone and Skarlatos are members of the military. Sadler told the Associated Press that Stone was seriously wounded and hospitalized from cuts suffered when the gunman stabbed him with a box cutter. Stone also helped another passenger who was wounded in the throat, Sadler said.

He added that the three men beat the suspect unconscious before French police detained him.

All three Americans were commended by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. French authorities are investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

“We heard a gunshot, and we heard glass breaking behind us, and saw a train employee sprint past us down the aisle,” Sadler said from France, describing the drama. Then, they saw a gunman entering the train car with an automatic rifle, he said.

“As he was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, ‘Spencer, go!’ And Spencer runs down the aisle,” Sadler said. “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.”

Another passenger helped tie the gunman up, and Stone then helped another passenger who had been wounded in the throat and losing blood, Sadler said.

“The gunman never said a word,” he added.

Reached Friday night, Sadler’s father, Anthony Sadler Sr., said, “I was relieved that he was not injured or killed and grateful that God gave him the opportunity to save the lives of many.”

Skarlatos, 22, had returned from a deployment in Afghanistan in July, and Stone is stationed in the Azores, according to Skarlatos' step-mother Karen Skarlatos.

She spoke with her step-son immediately after the incident. "He sounded fine, but he was intense — he sounded like he had just thwarted a terrorist attack."

"Alek and Spencer, they're big, brave, strong guys and they decided they were going to tackle him. And they did," she told the AP from Oregon. "Spencer got a couple good slices on him. But they were able to subdue him while the train was still moving."

Cazeneuve, speaking to reporters in Paris on Saturday, said that the suspect may be a 26-year-old Moroccan flagged by Spanish authorities last year for links to Islamic radical movements, but the identity has not been 100 percent confirmed.

An official linked to Spain's anti-terrorism unit said the suspect lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to France, travelled to Syria, and then returned to France. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be identified by name.

French authorities are questioning the attacker and are expected to speak to at least one of the Americans on Saturday about what happened. Counterterrorism police are leading the investigation, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office has also opened an investigation into the incident on the grounds that the suspect had boarded the train in Brussels, said spokesman Eric Van der Sypt. He said Belgian authorities are assisting the investigation, which is led by France.

Cazeneuve said the violence began when a French passenger ran into the heavily armed suspect while trying to enter a bathroom and the gunman fired a weapon.

Cazeneuve said the Americans "were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances," and that "without their sangfroid we could have been confronted with a terrible drama." A British passenger also helped subdue the attacker.

Cazeneuve called for caution before jumping to conclusions. French authorities are on heightened alert after Islamic extremist attacks in January left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen. In June, a lone attacker claiming allegiance to Islamic radicals beheaded his employer and set off an explosion at an American-owned factory in France, raising concerns about other scattered, hard-to-predict attacks.

The Associated Press and San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Rachel Swan contributed to this report.