FRANCE: Three Americans and a British man who restrained a heavily armed man on a passenger train speeding through Belgium have received France’s top honour.

President Françcois Hollande pinned the Legion of Honour medal on US Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and their years-long friend Anthony Sadler, who subdued the gunman as he moved through the train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest.

The British businessman, Chris Norman, also jumped into the fray and helped restrain the gunman.

Mr Hollande said the men showed “that "faced with terror, we have the power to resist. You also gave a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope”.

The alleged gunman, identified as 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani, is being questioned in custody by French counter-terrorism police outside Paris.

Mr Hollande said the two Americans who first tackled the gunman were soldiers, “but on Friday you were simply passengers”.

He added: “You behaved as soldiers, but also as responsible men.”

El-Khezzani’s lawyer Sophie David said her client does not understand the suspicions of terrorism, media attention or even that a person was wounded. For him, there were no gunshots fired, Sophie David said.

The Americans, wearing polo shirts and khakis against the backdrop of the highly formal presidential palace, appeared slightly overwhelmed as they received France’s highest honour.

Mr Stone, 23, whose arm was in a sling, has said he was coming out of a deep sleep when the gunman appeared.

He said Mr Skarlatos, a 22-year-old National Guardsman recently back from Afghanistan, “just hit me on the shoulder and said: ‘let’s go.’”.

With those words, Mr Hollande said, a “veritable carnage” was avoided.