A Northern Ireland man has been killed defending a female colleague at a café in Vancouver, Canada.

Tony McNaughton, 39, was stabbed when he fended off a man armed with a butcher's knife at Starbuck's coffee house where he was manager in Vancouver's West End on Saturday.

Mr McNaughton, from Newtownabbey, County Antrim, near Belfast was taken to Saint Paul's Hospital, but died from his wounds.

The Canadian news service, Canada.com, has reported that the woman's ex-husband, Mirhashemi Seyed-Fatemi, a 49-year-old West End cab driver, has been charged with second degree murder and is expected appear in court later on Monday.

Vancouver police constable Anne Drennan told Canada.com that it was likely the woman would have died if Mr McNaughton had not stepped heroically in front of the knife.

Last words

The police said his last words were to tell his employee to run.

She was able to run across the road to another café to get help while Mr McNaughton tackled her assailant.

Constable Drennan said: "The manager heroically intervened.

"It appears that if the manger not taken the actions he did, she might well have been the victim."

Starbuck employees, family and friends have left floral tributes to Mr McNaughton outside the coffee shop, which has been closed.

Mr McNaughton is believed to have emigrated to Vancouver in 1993 and had just recently applied for Canadian citizenship.