MIAMI police have shot dead a naked man as he ate the face of another man police believe was homeless.

The incident happened at about 2pm local time on Saturday near Miami's busy Biscayne Boulevard, just south of The Miami Herald building, the newspaper reported.

A witness told Sunday of yelling for the attacker to get off his victim, before police arrived and repeated the demand.

As an officer drew his gun and called for an end to the disgusting attack, "the guy just stood ... with pieces of flesh in his mouth and he growled," Larry Vega told WSVN-TV.

He said the scene after the assailant was shot several times and fell alongside his disfigured victim was "one of the most gruesome things I've ever seen in my life."

It remains unclear why the attacker pounced on his victim, who police theorized might have been homeless and laying down when the crazed man began the assault.

It was also unclear how both men came to be naked, but police said the attacker might have been suffering from "cocaine psychosis," a drug-induced craze that makes a person very hot, according to the Herald.

According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing another man's face on the side on an off-ramp and shouted on his loud speaker for the attacker to back away.

The man refused police orders, which led a police officer to fire one shot.



The Herald reported that the man continued his gruesome attack after being wounded.

A witness said as many as six shots were fired. Police have requested surveillance video from the Herald's building, the newspaper reported.

Javier Ortiz, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police in Miami, said the officer who fired the fatal shots was "a hero".

About half of the victim's face was chewed off, and he is fighting for his life with critical injuries, police said.

The incident came as thousands of people descended on Miami’s South Beach for the annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival.