A passenger repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated a young man aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through Manitoba overnight in what appears to be a random attack, a witness said Thursday.
The RCMP would not confirm the report, only saying that a homicide took place west of Portage la Prairie late Wednesday on a bus driving along the Trans-Canada Highway.
About 37 passengers and a driver were aboard the bus en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton, according to a Greyhound spokesperson.
The RCMP say a suspect, whose identity has not been released, was arrested without incident early Thursday morning.
Passenger Garnet Caton, who was sitting in the seat in front of the victim, told CBC News in gruesome detail how he saw the attacker stab his seatmate, a young man sleeping with his headphones on.
Caton said he heard a "blood-curdling scream" and turned around to see the attacker holding a large "Rambo" hunting knife above the victim, "continually stabbing him in the chest area."
"He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times," said Caton.
As panicked passengers fled the bus, "the attacker was over top of the victim … continually cutting him. I think the victim was gone at that point," Caton said.
Trio tried to check on victim
Caton, the driver and a trucker who had stopped at the scene later boarded the vehicle to see if the victim was still alive.
"When we came back on the bus, it was visible at the end of the bus he was cutting the guy's head off and pretty much gutting him up," said Caton.
The attacker ran at them, Caton said, and they ran out of the bus, holding the door shut as he tried to slash at the trio.
When the attacker tried to drive the bus away, the driver disabled the vehicle, Caton said.
"While we were watching the door, he calmly walks up to the front with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," said Caton.
Acted 'like he was a robot'
Caton described the attacker as surprisingly calm. "It was like he was at the beach or something. There was no rage in him. He wasn't swearing or cursing or anything. It was just like he was a robot or something."
Police cruisers arrived about 10 minutes after the attack began, he estimates, and officers began directing passengers to school buses to take them to a hotel in Brandon.
"While we were waiting on the side of the road, [the attacker] was taunting the police with the head in his hand," said Caton.
Caton described the attacker as appearing "totally normal" earlier in the journey, even chatting with a young woman as he smoked a cigarette during a break.
But when he got back on the bus, he moved his belongings from the front to a seat beside the victim in the back and about 20 minutes later began attacking the man, said Caton. "He didn't say anything to the victim at all," said Caton.
A six-year-old and other children were among the passengers who saw the horrific incident unfold, said Caton.
"It was pretty traumatic," he said, adding that some passengers said they have been unable to sleep or eat since it happened.
A chaplain and crisis team were on hand to counsel passengers at the hotel, he said.
Investigation is in 'full motion': minister
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day commented on the killing, saying that like most Canadians, he was horrified to hear witness accounts of the homicide.
"The horrific nature of it is probably one of a kind in Canadian history," he told reporters late Thursday morning in Lévis, Que.
The minister said he didn't want to say anything that would compromise the investigation, but "I can assure people that everything is in full motion and momentum to getting to the bottom of this incident."
Questioned about whether weapons regulations should be put into place for buses, Day said it would be premature to look at such precautionary measures but added that the legal process will be followed as "aggressively as possible."
Officers were still at the scene early Thursday and brought portable search lights to examine the bus, which pulled over about 18 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie, the CBC's Sean Kavanagh reported. Traffic was being rerouted to a side road.
Abby Wambaugh, media relations spokeswoman for Greyhound Canada, said there were 37 passengers and a driver aboard the bus.
thats terrible. jeeze, i thought canada was supposed to be practically crime free. 
