Hanoi : A Vietnamese woman paid a friend to cut off her hand and foot in a bid to claim a handsome insurance payout, state-run media reported, according to AFP.
The woman, identified only as LTN, checked into a Hanoi hospital in May with one third of her left foot and one third of her left hand severed, but doctors told her they could not reattach the limbs. She later told police she was struck by a train as she walked on the tracks and was rescued by her friend Doan Van D., according to Tuoi Tre’s English edition. The 30-year-old submitted a claim to her insurance company for 3.5 billion dong ($130,000), a huge sum in Vietnam where the average monthly income is $2,100.
“N hired D to cut her hand and foot, then continued to have him report false information to the police,” said Bac Tu Liem police chief Nguyen Thanh Tung said, according to the newspaper. Hanoi police declined to comment to AFP about the case, but reports said the woman offered her friend around $2,000 to perform the bloody deed. “The greatest shame is that N, instead of claiming the money, has suffered a huge loss by losing both her hand and foot,” Tung was quoted as saying.
