A man attempted suicide after allegedly hacking his partner to death in a jealous rage before being arrested by police in Banteay Meanchey’s Mongkol Borei district on Monday evening.

Police were alerted by a call from the victim’s brother and arrived to a gruesome scene.

“The suspect took the cleaver to cut his throat as he sat on his wife’s corpse,” said Sambuor commune police chief San Bunthorn, who, with his men, intervened to stop the suspect.

While suspect Uy Heuth, 45, and the victim, 42-year-old Chhem Ung, had been living together for five years, they were not legally married.

According to Bunthorn, a drunken Heuth accused Ung of having an affair, which she denied and then suggested they break up.

“They argued, [Heuth] took a cleaver to chop [Ung]; she tried to run . . . Her husband pinned her down, cut her throat and hacked at her head, breasts, shoulders and face until she died,” Bunthorn said, adding that Heuth hacked her at least 19 times and hacked Ung’s mother in the elbow when she tried to intervene.

Authorities say Heuth has been charged and will face trial.