Utah bus hijacking fails

A law enforcement vehicle sits behind the stopped Greyhound bus.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- A man tried but failed to commandeer a Greyhound bus bound for Nashville, Tennessee, Wednesday night, authorities said.

The driver of the bus successfully stopped the vehicle on the side of the road after passengers wrestled the unidentified hijacker away from the driver.

The man and an unidentified woman fled the bus after it stopped, and left in a car that police believe had been following the bus.

No one was injured, and no weapons were found.

An unidentified passenger said the man, described as a white male in his mid 30s, "walked up midway in the bus ... turned around and said, 'this is a hijacking.'"

Driver Gene Savage said the man wanted to turn the bus over.

Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Doug McCleve said the man ran to the front of the bus, yelling that he had a bomb... and he was going to take over the bus.

Bus driver Gene Savage said the man "grabs my wheel and says 'I'm gonna flip this bus'. I'm just holding on to the wheel and he's trying to put me out into the middle lane of traffic. I'm trying to get it off the side of the road plus try to kick him down into the stairwell at the same time," he said.

Savage managed to safely stop the eastbound bus on the roadside of Interstate 80, about seven miles east of Salt Lake City. The bus was traveling from Portland, Oregon, to Nashville, and had just left Salt Lake City.

McCleve said the highway patrol has some leads in the case, and "we don't know if he was mentally disturbed or was trying to take over."

A bomb-sniffing dog was brought in to sweep the bus because the man said he had a bomb.

Greyhound sent a second bus to pick up the stranded passengers.