A horrifying murder took place Wednesday afternoon on a street in South East London. Two men in their 20s attacked and beheaded a British soldier with a machete-style knife. The attackers, thought to be terrorists, were eventually shot in the legs by the police, arrested, and are now in hospital custody.

Through it all, an amazingly heroic story evolved. During the crime a brave woman appeared. She may have saved many lives. The woman, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, without thinking about herself, put her life on the line and tried to reason with the attackers. She displayed great courage. After going to help the victim, she is confronted by one of the attackers, and begins trying to reason with him.

Loyau-Kennett said she got off her bus from France, saw a crashed car and a person lying in the street. Being trained in first aid, she went over to help the person. After taking the victim’s pulse and determining he was dead, she was confronted by one of the attackers.

She said a man”with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over” and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.”I asked him why he had done what he had done,” The Guardian quoted her as saying. “He said he had killed the man because he (the victim) was a British soldier who killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was furious about the British Army being over there.”

Before the police arrived, the 48-year-old mother kept talking to the bloodied attackers in hopes of calming them down. One man told her he was going to kill the police when they arrived. She asked him if that was reasonable as she tried to keep him engaged. Then she spoke to the other attacker, who she said appeared quiet and shy.

“I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn’t want to say that,” she said. “He didn’t agree and I asked him: `Do you want to carry on?’ He said: `No, no, no.’ I didn’t want to upset him,” she is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

Here is the video:

Prime Minister David Cameron, the people of Great Britain, and the world, are praising Loyau-Kennett for her bravery in handling such an incredibly tense situation.

The soldier killed in Wednesday’s brutal attack has been identified by the U.K. Ministry of Defense as Drummer Lee Rigby, who joined the military forces in 2006. He was 25 years old.

Loving thoughts and prayers from around the world are being sent to Drummer’s family and loved ones.

The alleged attackers are both in stable condition in two separate London hospitals. Two additional suspects, a man and women, have been arrested and taken into custody. Given the way the murder took place, the words the attackers were shouting, and the fact that they were asking people to take photos/videos, reports are saying this was a terrorist attack. The full story is in Huffington Post World.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett acted spontaneously, without thoughts for her own safety. She said in an interview:

“Better me, than a child.

Such a beautiful example of courage, selflessness, and genuine concern for others – I am, once again, filled with awe, and a renewed faith in human spirit.

(The author, Leslie Salzillo, is an activist, political commentator, diarist and visual artist. Salzillo often writes diaries in Daily Kos and began contributing to AddictingInfo.org in March 201