Two U.S. Marines Wounded After Stopping Islamist Terror Attacker on French Train in Belgium (VIDEO) (Update: Gunman ID’d as Ayoub el Khazzani)

HEROES: US Marines always at the ready …

Two U.S. Marines were reportedly wounded after they stopped an Islamist terror attacker aboard a French train traveling through Belgium. The terror suspect was wielding a box cutter and an AK-47. The suspect opened fire aboard the train injuring several individuals. CNN International reports, the struggle was brief, bloody and chaotic as three Americans ,  a civilian, an Air Force member and a National Guard member,  jumped into action and quickly tackled the suspect preventing a most certain massacre aboard the train.

They have yet t officially call this an act of terrorism; however, if it walks like a duck … The suspected gunman, a Moroccan national, was on the radar screen of European counterterrorism agencies for his radical jihadist views, the European counterterrorism official said.

The train was speeding through Belgium when the man emerged from the train bathroom, shirtless with a rifle — possibly an AK 47 — slung over his shoulder, the Americans said.

The three men — a member of the Air Force, an inactive National Guard member and a civilian — responded quickly, possibly preventing a deadly attack on the high-speed Thalys train.

The suspect had a box cutter or some other bladed weapon, authorities said.

“My friend Alek (Skarlatos) yells, ‘Get him,’ so my friend Spencer (Stone) immediately gets up to charge the guy, followed by Alek, then myself,” Anthony Sadler said in an interview with CNN.

“The three of us beat up the guy,” Anthony said. “In the process Spencer gets slashed multiple times by the box cutter, and Alek takes the AK away.

Dramatic footage shows aftermath of French train attack

UPDATE I: The Telegraph – Hero off-duty soldiers and British IT worker describe beating French train terrorist unconscious.

Chris Norman, the British man on board the train who helped tie up the attacker, has praised Spencer Stone’s bravery in helping an injured passenger who he said had been shot, even though he was badly injured himself.

He told reporters: “Once we had actually finally been able to get the guy under control, then Spencer, who is Alek’s friend, went to help the guy who had been shot, because there was a person who had actually taken a bullet wound and he was losing a lot of blood.

“So Spencer, he had a couple of cuts in the back of his neck, and his thumb was nearly cut off, actually probably saved the life of the other guy as well.

“So, it was really amazing. I think Spencer is the real hero of this.

“He was the guy who got up – Spencer first, Alek, Anthony, and then I came in at the end of it.”

UPDATE II: Correction, Three Americans are heroes in preventing terror attack on train.

In any case, the actions of U.S. Airman First Class Spencer Stone, of Sacramento, Oregon National Guard Spc. Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler, a Sacramento State University student described as a longtime friend of Stone’s, meant there was no worst case scenario.

And so Aug. 21, 2015 will not join the list of dates of horrific carnage that have come to be associated with modern terrorism. It will not be recalled as the deadliest attack since Sept. 11, 2001, or simply 9/11, which it could well have been. It won’t be remembered as deadlier than 11-M, the March 11, 2004, terror attacks on commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, that left 191 dead. It won’t eclipse the carnage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris earlier this year, which began on Jan. 7 and ended Jan. 9, and left 17 victims and three attackers dead.

UPDATE III: Gunman Identified as Ayoub el Khazzani.