“We all went to bed”, says a train passenger

“We don’t know what went through his head, he had no claim,” says Stéphanie, a passenger on the TGV Milan-Annecy-Paris where an aggressive man was overpowered.

“We were afraid that he would enter the train with a weapon”, testified this Thursday, July 13, 2023 a passenger of the TGV Milan-Annecy-Paris, where a very aggressive man was overpowered by a plainclothes policeman and a passenger. This 49-year-old flight attendant, Stéphanie, tells “the big scare” for all the passengers of the train where the scene took place.

>> Gunshot in an Annecy-Paris TGV: what is the “travel-protect” device that allowed a police officer to intervene?

“We were in train number 2, in first class, in the lower part of the car”explains Stephanie, “Just after the stop at Mâcon, an individual came in, looking completely haggard, that caught my attention. He turned to go out and his hands were full of blood”.

The stewardess then alerts another passenger behind her, reporting the behavior “weird” of this man. “He went to look in the airlock and saw that the glass of the door was in a thousand pieces, that he had used the hammer [de sécurité] to break the window.” “There’s a Switchblade” but “just on the ground”specifies the air hostess, who does not remember having seen the man with a knife in his hand.

The scene lasts for long minutes

The passenger then tries to control the individual, while the plainclothes policeman who was traveling with his weapon as part of the device “travel-protect”then in oar number 5, was warned of the situation. “He intervened immediately”says Stephanie, “but they struggled to control him, he was very aggressive.”

The tough scene “very long minutes”before the train passengers hear a shot: “We all went to bed, we were under the seats”says the flight attendant, who claims to have heard “two shots” in all.

In the train, several men take off their belts, to help the two men to attach the individual. “We couldn’t stop the train, because they were in the airlock, so we couldn’t pass without risking being hit.”

No claim

The train finally stops at Le Creusot “where the gendarmerie was there, the police too. The man was on the ground”remembers Stéphanie, who did the translation into English since the man did not speak French. “We don’t know what went through his head, he had no claims and once he had mastered it, he was very wise”. The man said nothing, according to Stephanie.

“Fortunately” that the plainclothes policeman and the passenger “were there”she insists, “it could have completely degenerated”. According to her, the plainclothes policeman took many blows : “he had bruises”, but was not more seriously affected.

TESTIMONY. Gunshot in a TGV: “We all went to bed”, says a train passenger

listen


source site-33