(CNN) -- A knife-wielding man attacked a woman in a supermarket, eventually cutting off her head and running away with it, government officials in Spain's Tenerife Island said Friday. The man entered a shopping center in the town of Arona, in the Cristianos area of Tenerife, and stole a knife from the supermarket before attacking the apparent stranger, a central government spokeswoman said. Shopping center security guards were alerted and chased the man, subduing him until police arrived. The man, whom national police in Tenerife identified as a Bulgarian, was apparently known in the shopping area, the government spokeswoman said. The British Foreign and Commonwealth office confirmed Friday that a British national had died in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands. CNN's Al Goodman, Per Nyberg and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.
A knife-wielding man attacked a woman on Tenerife . He cut off her head and ran away with it, officials say . Security guards chased and subdued him . Police identified him as Bulgarian national .