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Brutal bus stabbing in Manitoba grabs attention of media outlets worldwide |
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Written by Timothy Avery, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Friday, 01 August 2008 |
Passengers depart a Brandon Bus Lines charter bus for a quick break back at the Comfort Inn in Brandon, Man. before heading to Winnipeg. The passengers are witnesses to a murder on a Greyhound bus last night near Portage la Prairie, and were taken back to Brandon to be questioned by police. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tim Smith
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TORONTO - The slaughter of a man by a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus heading to Winnipeg was extensively covered by worldwide media Thursday.
The story was ranked No. 1 in popularity on the BBC News website and No. 2 on CNN's. It was given wide play by The Associated Press and other foreign news agencies, MSNBC, British and Australian newspapers and was a hot topic for bloggers on the Internet.
Passengers on the bus from Edmonton to Winnipeg said a man repeatedly stabbed his seatmate before beheading him and carrying the victim's head around the bus.
Shocked passengers described the horrific attack as incomprehensible. They had no explanation as to what might have prompted the attack. The suspect had been on the bus for only about an hour and didn't even sit near his victim at first.
Commenting on the story carried on CNN's website, one blogger remarked: "Decapitated on a Greyhound Bus, this sounds like something out of a Richard Laymon novel."
Another contributor said: "I found it scary seeing as how I used to take Greyhounds to Canada.
! I doubt I ever will again, especially now."
Some of the U.S. reaction seemed to imply the incident is a sign of weakness in Canadian character.
"Canadians are wussies," one opined.
"Way to exit the vehicle you panzies (sic). Yesterday when someone opened up shop with a 12 guauge (sic) shotgun in the Pennsylvania he got rushed by multiple people as he was still firing shots."
Other readers were also disturbed by what they saw as a lack of action on the part of the passengers on the bus to stop the killing.
One wrote: "37 people didn't have anything to throw at him? 37 people couldn't have over powered one guy with a knife?"
"Isn't this the same mentality that allowed 2 or 3 idiots with box cutters to take out the Twin Towers?"
A comment on Blogger News Network compared the incidents to the notorious Kitty Genovese case.
"They all 'watched' and the bus driver had to ask a trucker to help him keep the guy in the bus."
"No handguns allowed in Canada, we know. But no woman had a purse to bonk him on the head?"
"No one bothered to throw a can of diet Coke at the guy's head? Who was on the bus? The Old Ladies' Home and Gardening Society?"
The Mo'Kelly Report website carried the story and a comment from a reader who insisted the incident was a terrorist act.
"Winnipeg is only a few miles from the U.S. border."
"The idea was to get as close to the U.S. as he could, if not get into the U.S., then engage in the attack in front of a busload of people. This was another act of radical Islamic terrorism on North American soil."
"Beheading is the trademark of al-Qaeda."
Graphic passenger accounts of the violence on board the bus made headlines overseas.
"Killer taunts police with decapitated head," wrote the Sunday Times of Australia.
Thai media outlet Thaindian.com's headline read "Beheading on bus shocks Canada, canibalism feared" while Britain's Sky News wrote "Bus slasher beheads passenger."
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Last Updated ( Friday, 01 August 2008 )
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