PARIS: French President Francois Hollande on Saturday offered his “heartfelt thanks” to his US counterpart Barack Obama for the “exemplary conduct” shown by three US citizens who overpowered a suspected gunman on a packed Amsterdam-Paris train, the Elysee Palace said.

Their actions helped prevent “an extremely serious” incident, Hollande’s office said in a statement.

Hollande will greet the train heroes at the Elysee Palace on Monday.

Armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, an automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter, the attacker opened fire on board a high-speed Thalys train just after it crossed from Belgium into northern France on Friday evening.

But the attack was quickly stopped when two off-duty US servicemen and their friend charged the gunman and restrained him. A British passenger also assisted in subduing the man.

One passenger received a gunshot wound in the attack, while one of the US servicemen was injured with a knife. A 28-year-old French passenger had spotted the gunman as he exited a toilet cubicle and was the first to try to disarm him, but the suspect managed to slip away and fire several shots.

The gunman, identified as a 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani, was known to intelligence services over extremism, French officials have said.