A 20-year-old woman is in police custody after she chopped off a man's hand while defending a female relative in a domestic violent incident in Barrackpore yesterday.

The young woman is also closely related to the 61-year-old man.

She was at her home at Oropouche South Trace around 3.30 pm when she heard her relative Kamla Lal bawling and calling her name.

She ran to the house and saw the male relative beating her with an iron chair. Lal was on the ground bleeding from her head.

The woman shouted at the man to stop, but he refused. She then ran into the house got a cutlass and ran back outside. She again pleaded with him to stop hitting her relative, but instead, he turned to hit her with the chair.

The woman then chopped him in the arms, severing his left hand from the wrist.

The woman's both relatives were taken for medical treatment, but the man is still warded at the San Fernando General Hospital. Lal sought treatment at the Princes Town Hospital and is now at home.