Police arrived at the apartment to find the woman’s foot had nearly been sawn off. The 31-year-old woman had also been doused in boiling water and cooking oil, stabbed in the head and slashed with knives.

The woman sustained serious fracture wounds, bruises and second-degree burns on her face, neck, chest and arms.

Neighbours had warned police after hearing loud screams and howling in the apartment.

“It’s a wonder she’s alive,” the woman’s legal aid lawyer was quoted by NRK as saying.

The woman is an immigrant mother of four children who had come to Norway two years ago. The 41-year-old suspect arrived in the country a year later but had reportedly blamed his wife for his failure to obtain permanent residency status.