A man accused of beheading another passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada has pleaded in court for someone to "please kill me".

Vince Weiguang Li is accused of stabbing 22-year-old carnival worker Tim McLean to death in front of terrified fellow passengers.

He is then said to have cut his head off and eating some of his flesh. The attack appears to have been completely unprovoked.

At the Provincial Court of Manitoba prosecutors asked the judge for a mental evaluation on Li, who emigrated to Canada from China in 2004.

Prosecutor Joyce Dalmyn revealed new details about the attack, which occurred last Wednesday night.

She said Li had a plastic bag containing his victim's ear, nose and part of a mouth in his pocket when officers arrested him.

The only response officers received from him was: "'I have to stay on the bus forever."

Li is charged with second-degree murder and is yet to enter a plea. Since his arrest he has refused to speak to prosecutors or to his court-appointed lawyer.

When asked by Provincial Court of Manitoba Judge Michel Chartier if he wanted a lawyer, Li shook his head and then quietly said: "Please kill me."

Ms Dalmyn said many heard the plea, adding: "There were some people in the courtroom that were taken aback by it.

"Those were the only words I heard him utter in the courtroom."

Li is due back in court on September 8 when a new lawyer could be appointed for him.

Thirty-seven passengers were aboard the Greyhound from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, as it travelled at night along a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway about 12 miles from Portage La Prairie.

Some were napping and others watching the movie The Legend of Zorro on bus television screens when Li attacked McLean, allegedly stabbing him dozens of times.

As horrified passengers fled the bus, Li severed McLean's head, displaying it to some of the passengers outside the bus, witnesses said. He then began hacking at the body.

A police officer at the scene reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim's body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the internet.

A church pastor, Tom Castor, who helped hire Li soon after he immigrated in 2004 with his wife, Anna, said the man never showed any sign of anger or emotional problems when he worked there as a custodian.

In the wake of the attack, Greyhound scrapped a billboard ad campaign that extolled the relaxing side of bus travel.

The ad said: "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage'."


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