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European countries to increase security checks on trains following attack

European ministers have agreed to increase security on key international rail routes and improve intelligence sharing after the thwarted gun attack on a French train.

Three Americans and a British grandfather managed to overpower a suspected Islamist gunman who opened fire on a high-speed train heading to Paris last week.

Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani has been charged with attempted murder of a terrorist nature and was remanded in custody after a hearing in the capital.

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French police warned about train gunman 'a year ago'

French police were reportedly warned more than a year ago about the radical views of a gunman disarmed by US and British passengers on a train.

France has been on heightened alert since January following attacks at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Credit: Reuters

Spanish authorities told their French counterparts in March 2014 that Ayoub El-Khazzani had a "relationship with radical Islam", the Spanish El Pais newspaper reported.

It also claimed the 26-year-old Moroccan, believed to have visited Syria last year, had been included on a European anti-extremism police database as far back as 2012.

He was identified by counter-terrorism investigators as the gunman armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun who opened fire on the Amsterdam-Paris train on Friday.

French authorities also said El-Khazzani had lived in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras, frequenting a mosque which is under surveillance there.

He was transferred on Saturday morning to anti-terror police headquarters outside Paris and can be held for up to 96 hours

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European countries to increase security checks on trains following attack

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