A man stabbed his former girlfriend's 62-year-old lover in South Africa and ate the victim's heart, police said Thursday.
Neighbors noticed the gruesome act through a window and informed the police. "On the scene they found a suspect, a Zimbabwean national, busy eating the heart of a human with a knife and fork," police spokesman Frederick van Wyk told the Cape Times.
The victim was identified as Mbuyiselo Manona. The ex-girlfriend of the 35-year-old killer told the police that he had visited the house where she was living with her current partner. They both had a friendly chat and then he gave her money and told her to buy liquor and she left. After returning she found her partner stabbed by the former lover.
Neighbors were alerted by the uproar. "The whole situation was crazy. We were shouting at him to stop, but he did not listen," a neighbor who witnessed the incident said. "Even when the police got here... the guys were scared to go in. They had to call for back-up. You can't really blame them -- how do you go into a room with someone dripping another person's blood out of his mouth?"
According Western Cape deputy police commissioner Sharon Jephta, the motive for the murder was "definitely a love triangle".
Clinical psychologist Ian Meyer said the act of removing Manona's heart is a "primitive symbol of triumph," reports Sowetan Live. Such cannibalism exists, however, it is uncommon in South Africa.
The suspect was arrested and is expected to appear in court soon.
