A 50-year-old woman was killed and her husband seriously injured by a man who held a grudge against them.

The attack took place on Sannathi Street in north Chennai’s Thiruvottriyur area on Tuesday evening when the victim, Gowri, and her husband Mari were selling vegetables on the roadside.

According to those who witnessed the incident, a man approached the couple and started attacking Gowri with a knife. When her husband tried to intervene and save her, the man also attacked him.

Bystanders caught the attacker when the man tried to escape after attacking the two. The attacker was identified as 52-year-old Sekar, who drives a coach. Later, Sekar was handed over to the police.

Gowri succumbed to his injuries despite giving him emergency medical attention; her husband was taken to the nearby Stanley Government Hospital.

According to the initial investigation, Sekar held a grudge against Gowri as she had allegedly slapped him with slippers in an earlier altercation around 10 days back.

That fight was over. Sekar suspected that the two were urinating in a place where he usually slept. He confronted the two of them with that suspicion and started an argument with them. During that altercation, Gowri hit him with slippers and was upset about it.

Police continued to investigate the case.