OTTAWA - A PASSENGER travelling across Canada's Western plains on a bus stabbed, gutted and decapitated a man seated next to him, and then taunted police with the head, a witness told media on Thursday.

The victim, believed to be 18 years old, had been sleeping with headphones on his ears before he was repeatedly stabbed in the chest by the man with a 'big Rambo knife,' witness Garnet Caton told public broadcaster CBC.

The other 34 passengers and the driver were jolted by 'blood-curdling screams' and fled, bracing the door on their way out to trap the assailant inside the bus, he said.

'He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times,' said Mr Caton.

When Mr Caton and two others returned to check on the victim, he said they saw the attacker 'cutting the guy's head off and gutting him.' 'While we were watching ... he calmly walked up to the front (of the bus) with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stared at us and dropped the head right in front of us.'

'There was no rage in him and he wasn't swearing or cursing or anything, it was just like he was a robot or something.'

Moments later, police surrounded the bus and arrested the man after a nearly three-hour stand-off, an official said.

'He was taunting police with the head in his hand out the window,' said Mr Caton.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they were investigating a 'major incident' that occurred at 9 pm Wednesday (10 am Singapore time, Thursday) on a Greyhound bus travelling east from Edmonton to Winnipeg, but offered few details.

A 40-year-old man was subdued after he jumped out of a broken window of the bus parked on the side of the desolate highway, RCMP Sergeant Steve Colwell told a press conference.

'At this time, I'm not aware of what may have provoked this attack,' Mr Colwell said, refusing to confirm or deny eyewitness accounts.

'I can confirm the victim was stabbed, and that the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.'

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called the attack 'horrific.' -- AFP

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