A woman in Hanoi has been accused of hiring another person to cut off her hand and foot for VND3.5bn (USD159,000) in a fraudulent insurance claim after falling in debt.

The woman is now missing a hand and leg

At midnight of May 5, police in Bac Tu Liem District was reported about a traffic accident on the railway from Ha Dong to Phu Tho Province. They found an injured woman lying beside the railway.

One-third of her left hand and one third of her left leg already separated from the body. The doctors at Hospital 198 tried to re-attach the hand and foot, however, four days later, she wanted to be transferred to Viet-Germany Hospital. But due to necrosis, the doctors had to remove the damaged body parts.

According to the victim, she had got married and has two children in Phuc Tho District. On that day, she was troubled by family problems and had the accident while wandering along the railway. Luckily, she saw a man nearby and called for help.

However, during the investigation, the police noticed some suspicious details and expanded the investigation. The woman constantly demanded the police to determine the injury rate so that she could have the insurance money. In addition, the police didn't find any blood on the train and the injuries were caused by a sharp-edged object. Since March, the woman had bought several large insurance packages just in case accident.

Three months later, the police concluded that the woman and the man who reported to the police station actually knew each other.

The woman allegedly admitted to police that she was in debt and faked the accident for insurance money. She demanded VND3.5bn from two insurance companies.

The woman hired the man for VND50m (USD2,270) to cut off her hand and foot. The man bought the knives and they selected the railway near a police station as the accident scene so that they could be transferred to hospital in time. Seeing the train fast approaching, the woman told the man to quickly cut off her hand and foot before running to the police station.

According to the police of Bac Tu Liem, they are completing the case and will apply administrative sanctions. They won't file criminal charges against the woman. The insurance companies haven't paid the woman yet as everyone is waiting for the results of the investigation.

Colonel Nguyen Thanh Tung, head of Bac Tu Liem District police force said this was the most extreme case of insurance fraud they had heard of in Vietnam.