Spain Entered France Train Gunman in European Police Database in 2012

Spanish anti-terror forces included the name of the man who opened fire on a Thalys train connecting Amsterdam and Paris earlier this week in the Schengen area police databases for "religious extremism" in 2012, local media reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Friday, the man opened fire, reportedly using a Kalashnikov rifle, and injured three people on the high-speed train.

According to El Pais newspaper’s Saturday report, Moroccan national Ayoub Kahzzani, 26, lived in Spain from 2007 until 2014, then leaving for France and later Syria, where he allegedly joined the Islamic State militant group. The counterterrorism sources told the newspaper that the man was entered in the European databases so that his movements could be tracked in 2012.

In 2014, Spain reported Kahzzani to the French police.

On Saturday, French media reported that the man was not intending to carry out an attack, but rob the train’s passengers.

The Islamic State militant group has taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq last year. According to US intelligence, up to 30,000 foreign fighters have joined the extremists.