A South African man died trying to cut his own head off with a butcher's band saw in a major supermarket, police said on Wednesday.

Superintendent Jay Naicker said the Shoprite Checkers store in Richards Bay had been ready to close on Monday when the man wandered in and headed for the meat department. "He just walked in, went to the band saw machine and switched it on," Naicker told Reuters. "Apparently he knew what he was doing. He put his neck to the blade and it cut about half way through before he fell to the floor."

Naicker said the man, later identified as 31-year-old Emmanuel Gumbi, was pronounced dead at the scene.

He said police had turned up no motive for the suicide, which stunned staff and shoppers at the store in northern Kwazulu-Natal province.