Toronto, Aug 1 (IANS) In a shocking incident described as “one-of-a-kind in Canadian history”, a bus passenger stabbed to death and beheaded his seat-mate and then waved the severed head to those who had exited the vehicle Wednesday night. A media outlet reported that the killer allegedly cannibalized his victim, though police didn’t confirm it. Passengers said the killer carried the severed head of his victim around the bus before dropping it on the floor of the bus.

The chilling incident took place on the dark Trans-Canada Highway near Portage La Prairie city in Manitoba province. The bus, with 37 passengers, was on its way to Winnipeg from Edmonton.

The passengers said the alleged killer started stabbing his 20-year victim without any provocation. The young victim, who was listening to music on headphones, was reportedly stabbed 40 to 50 times as other passengers scrambled to get out of the bus.

A passenger, who was sitting in front of the victim, told Canadian TV that once he realized what was going on he screamed: “Stop the bus, somebody’s getting stabbed, everyone get the hell off.”

He said as soon as the driver stopped the bus, the passengers fled the bus, except the killer who kept stabbing his victim calmly.

A little later, he said, he and a few other passengers came back to help the victim. “We returned to the back of the bus to find that the person who was stabbing the person in the neck had now sawed off the head of the victim.”

He said the killer, with the head of the victim in one hand and the knife in the other, tried to attack them. But the group managed to get out of the bus, slamming the door behind them.

Passengers said a truck driver, who stopped on seeing the commotion, gave them wrenches and crowbars to stop the killer from escaping till police arrived.

Police negotiated with the killer - who reportedly cut the victim’s body into many pieces and cannibalized it - to surrender. He was overpowered six hours later when he jumped out of the vehicle ad tried to escape in the dead of the night.

Expressing shock over the gory incident, federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the perpetrator will be dealt with severely under the law.

“We want to make sure the process is followed as aggressively as possible, the full legal process …,” the minister said.

“This particular incident, as horrific as it is, is obviously extremely rare. Certainly the horrific nature of it is probably one-of-a-kind in Canadian history,” the minister added.