A man reportedly held a knife to the throat of his 15-month-old nephew and decapitated him in front of his mother in a Saudi Arabian supermarket.

The 25-year-old Syrian man beheaded the toddler apparently after having a dispute with the toddler's parents, his sister and brother-in-law, Arab News reported.

Another newspaper, the Saudi Gazette, reported that the toddler was 18 months old.

The killing happened in front of shoppers and staff in the fruit and vegetable section of the Al-Marhaba supermarket yesterday morning.

A police officer told Arab News: "The murderer was in a dispute with the boy's mother and her husband. He chopped off the boy's head in front of the mother to get back at her."

Another witness, Abu Muhammad, who is in his mid-60s, told the paper: "It happened so quickly. Before people could intervene, the man had cut more than half way through the child's neck."

Another local expressed his disbelief that anyone could carry out such an act.

"No one could bear the gruesome sight of the boy's decapitated body lying on the floor," Muneer, a car mechanic, told Arab News.

"How could someone do such a thing?

"I just can't understand it ... I still can't believe it."

One shopper, Ahmed Abdul-Rahman, told the Saudi Gazette: "I was shopping when I heard a scream and saw people running toward the shop's pastry corner.

"When I arrived there, I couldn't believe what I saw.

"A headless body of a child lay on the floor and the head was lying nearby soaked in blood."

The man was arrested at the supermarket, reports AFP. Murder is punishable by death in the Islamic country, and the sentence is usually carried out by beheading.

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