Man attacked with a meat cleaver on SEPTA bus, police say

A man wielding a meat cleaver attacked another rider on a SEPTA bus early Thursday morning, according to Philadelphia Police.

Chief Inspector Scott Small said an officer parked near Broad and Callowhill streets in the city's Spring Garden neighborhood was alerted to the attack by someone who ran off the bus shortly after 2:30 a.m. Small said about eight people were on the bus when a 45-year-old man pulled out the meat cleaver and hit another passenger in the head and the hand.

Police said the two men didn't know each other prior to the attack, and witnesses told investigators that the man with the meat cleaver was "rambling incoherently" before hitting the victim.

The victim, also a 45-year-old man, was taken to Jefferson University Hospital and is in stable condition, according to police.

Witnesses on the bus were taken to police headquarters, and Small said the bus driver also believes the attack was caught on the vehicle's interior surveillance camera.

The man with the meat cleaver was arrested and the weapon was recovered, Small said.