Man who wrestled rifle from Paris train gunman turns out to be Armenian

PanARMENIAN.Net - The mystery identity of the first heroic passenger to wrestle a weapon from the high-speed train gunman can be disclosed for the first time by The Telegraph.

Mark Moogalian, a 51-year-old professor at the Sorbonne, tackled Ayoub El-Khazzani during Friday, August 21’s bloody incident aboard an Amsterdam-Paris international service, The Telegraph reports.

Mr Moogalian, who lives in Paris but is originally from Midlothian, Virginia, US, is the previously unnamed man who came to the aid of “Damien A”, 28, a French banker who confronted El-Khazzani.

The academic acted instinctively to protect his wife Isabella Risacher, who was also aboard the Thalys train.

He tackled the Kalashnikov assault rifle off El-Khazzani, who then drew a sidearm and shot him in the neck before taking back the rifle, his sister has revealed.

Three other US citizens including two military personnel, and Chris Norman, a British businessman then stepped in to disarm and overpower the assailant.

The academic, a keen musician and cyclist, was shot in the back of the neck and the bullet

Miss Risacher said: "He is in hospital and he is alright. But it was quite a difficult situation. Because he took the bullet in the back of the neck and it came out from the front it is quite a bad wound. So far nobody knows what has been going on with Mark. We have not spoken to anyone."

Mr Moogalian is understood to teach English at the Paris-Sorbonne University.