Reports: U.S. Marines 'Take Down' Gunman After He Opened Fire on High-Speed Train Traveling to Paris; Three Wounded

PARIS (TheBlaze/AP) — A spokesman for France's interior ministry says three people were wounded in a shooting on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris Friday. Multiple reports suggested that U.S. military members aboard the train played a role in taking down the shooter.

Speaking on French television BFM, Pierre-Henri Brandet says a suspect is in custody and the train has been evacuated.

Brandet says the motivation for the attack is unknown.

Man with machine gun in Arras (France) taken down by US Marines, via @FreedomFilmLLC #thalys #arras pic.twitter.com/Rta1Wn1ONG

— John van der Tol (@johnvandertol) August 21, 2015

Christophe Piednoel, a spokesman for national railway operator SNCF says the suspect was armed with an automatic rifle and a knife.

France's interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve is en route to the Arras, 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris, where the train stopped after the attack.

Video posted on Twitter appeared to show a suspect in police custody:

#Video footage of arrest #gunman #thalys #france #arras pic.twitter.com/N68WXxqf3Z

— Dutch Osint Guy (@DutchOsintGuy)

August 21, 2015

"Talking about a terrorist motive would be premature at the moment," Brandet added.

Details were initially scarce, but The Daily Beast reported that two "American soldiers" heroically stopped the gunman:

Two American soldiers aboard the high-speed Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris heard the sound of a Kalashnikov being cocked in the bathroom. When they confronted the man inside, a wild shooting spree began, injuring several people, two of them seriously, before passengers subdued the man. The shooter reportedly is of North African origin. He was taken into custody when the train stopped at the town of Arras in northern France. No terrorist links to the incident have been established thus far, but France has been on edge since the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket massacres in January. High-speed trains such as the Thalys are supposed to have heightened security as part of an ongoing nationwide alert, but there are no baggage checks except on the Eurostar that runs beneath the English Channel.

The Telegraph also reported that the shooter was "taken down" by a "group of U.S. marines onboard the train."

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