Armed attack on Thalys train: Anglade sticks to his story, Thalys will take his witness statement “into account”

Armed attack on Thalys train: Anglade sticks to his story, Thalys will take his witness statement “into account”

After meeting with the Thalys and SNCF management on Sunday, the actor Jean-Hugues Anglade has stuck to his story, which says members of the train’s staff abandoned passengers. He was told his statement would be “taken into account” by the internal inquiry, according to a joint statement.

“The incontestable witness statements by Jean-Hugues Anglade and his partner is an emotional description of what they went through in car 11 of the Thalys train, the one adjacent to the attack”, says a press release signed by the actor and his partner. It was also signed by Agnès Ogier, general director of Thalys, and Guillaume Pepy, president of the SNCF.

The text backs up the actor’s claim, but says the members of staff concerned were “restaurant staff”, which Thalys and the SNCF have reiterated since Sunday morning. They work for a sub-contractor.

“Jean-Hugues Anglade, his partner and two children had to deal with a dramatic incident, and felt abandoned. They were unhappy that restaurant staff in the car did not alert them to the gunshots or take them off the train with them. They could have put them safely in the baggage compartment, where they would have been protected”, the declaration says.

In response, “Agnès Ogier has assured Jean-Hugues Anglade and his partner that their statements, along with those of other passengers, will be taken into account by Thalys’ internal investigation”. “All the people concerned will be spoken to and asked to explain their behaviour during the incident”.

The only change is that the actor has added that his statement “is not a judgement of the values of all Thalys and SNCF staff present that day” and “the French inspector and the other Thalys employee who were in the car in which the attack happened behaved heroically”.

The Thalys director says “an agent felt a bullet fly past him. He left, taking five or six passengers with him, to shelter in the baggage car”. The SNCF said the two hostesses the actor saw run pass are “not Thalys or SNCB staff”. They are “employed by the sub-contractor” that manages the bar area.

(Source: Belga)


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