Paris - French police are facing a Tuesday deadline to decide whether to take steps to pursue charges against the gunman in a foiled Paris-bound train attack.
The 25-year-old Moroccan man is being held in custody after passengers on a train tackled him as he wielded a Kalashnikov on Friday.
Police said he also had an automatic pistol, nine magazines and a boxcutter.
Authorities can hold the suspect for up to 96 hours before making a decision about how to proceed.
Four passengers who intervened - three Americans and a Briton - received France’s Legion of Honour from President Francois Hollande on Monday, and they have been hailed as heroes for thwarting what could have been a massacre.
While the case was immediately turned over to the anti-terrorism unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, a lawyer for the suspect said he was “dumbfounded” by the decision and that he meant to hold up the train in order to get money to eat.
A fifth man, a Franco-American named Mark Moogalian, will also receive the Legion of Honour.
He remained in a hospital in the northern French city of Lille after being shot in the neck during Friday’s scuffle.
During an interview with broadcaster Europe 1, Moogalian’s wife Isabella Risacher-Moogalian said her husband had noticed a passenger with a suitcase spending a long time in the bathroom.
When he turned around, she said, he saw the suspect wielding a Kalashnikov being held by another passenger from behind and rushed forward to take the rifle.
That passenger is thought to be Frenchman who requested to remain anonymous.
The narrative could indicate that the four men men celebrated for their intervention were responding to a struggle that was already underway.
American friends Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler and a British man, Chris Norman, were honoured at the Elysee Palace on Monday and expected to be feted upon their return to the United States.
American media reports suggested that Stone, a member of the US Air Force, could get an Air Force medal.
He is still recovering from injuries sustained in the confrontation, including a severely cut thumb and slashes to the back of the neck.
He is credited with being the first to tackle the gunman, followed by fellow US military member National Guardsman Skarlatos.
The two were travelling in civilian clothes on a European holiday with their friend, Sadler, who is a senior at Sacramento State studying kinesiology, told French media that the group is still trying to come to terms with their newfound fame, adding that is was “like a dream.”
“I am returning to California,” Sadler told BFM-TV about his immediate plans.
“I am going to go back home and settle down a little bit. I have school next week, so I’m just going to try to settle down.”
DPA