On packed French train, it was fight, flight or freeze

(From left) US ambassador to France Jane Hartley, off-duty US servicemen Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos attend a press conference at the US embassy in Paris on August 23, 2015. -AFP

PARIS: The foiled attack on a crowded Paris-Amsterdam train provoked a range of reactions from passengers, but the military training of two young Americans who tackled the gunman proved decisive, psychiatrists say.

When a heavily-armed man produced an AK-47 in the aisle of the packed train on Friday, it drew three kinds of responses: shock, attempts to save one’s own skin and finally rare action that saw the attacker being overpowered and a bloodbath almost certainly being averted.