A man in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has chopped off his wife’s hand and immediately carried the amputated body part to a local police station to turn himself in.

On Thursday morning, the victim, 41-year-old N.T.T., and her husband, Tran Kim Tung, 38, came to a court in Giong Rieng District to settle their divorce request.

As they returned to the parking lot after the working session, the couple got in a fierce quarrel, with the husband eventually taking out a knife, apparently secretly brought with him to the court, chopping off his wife’s right hand.

The attack came as the wife was busy opening the underseat storage of her motorbike.

Tung then took the amputated hand with him to a local police station and confessed his act.

Officers at the station promptly preserved the limb in cold water and brought T. to the Kien Giang General Hospital for immediate treatment with one-third of her right arm being amputated.

The wife then underwent a surgery to have her hand reattached, with the operation competed on Saturday afternoon, Danh Trung, deputy chief of thoracic surgery at the Kien Giang General Hospital, said the same day.

Following careful medical consultations and a five hour and 20 minutes long surgical procedure, doctors at the hospital have succeeded in reconnecting the woman’s blood vessels, nerves and tendons as well as stabilizing her bones.

T.’s recovery has shown several positive signs three days after her replantation, Trung said.

However, it will take at least three weeks to determine whether her right hand has fully healed and regained its normal function, the doctor added.

The husband is current held in custody for the investigation.