A man who believed his wife was having an affair cut off her ears and severed her Achilles tendon in a revenge attack on Saturday, Beijing News reported yesterday.

The husband, surnamed Yang, and his wife Kan are migrant workers from Sichuan province. They have been married for 16 years and had been living in a rented house in the village of Heiqiao, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

A nurse at Huaxin Hospital, where Kan was taken after the attack, told China Daily yesterday: "The woman's ears have been stitched together and her condition is not life threatening.

"Her left Achilles tendon was severed and she may need plastic surgery in the future. She is clearly distressed and has been very quiet," she said.

Kan's friends who took her to hospital said they could not find the missing ears.

Yang later told his brother that he had thrown them in a fire, the report revealed.

Yang's brother said: "I tried to persuade him to confess his crime but he turned off the phone."

The couple has two sons. The youngest, a 7-year-old, had been living with the couple in Beijing but his father sent him back to Sichuan on Dec 15.

"He must have been considering hurting me, so he sent our son away," Kan told the Beijing News.

Yang tied her hands and feet with wire at about 7 pm on Saturday, when she was asleep.

"He had accused me of not being loyal to him and had made me sleep on the sofa for the past few days," Kan told the newspaper.

While Kan was sleeping, Yang cut off her ears with a knife then severed her Achilles tendon with a pair of scissors.

He then fled the house with the couple's money and all of her clothes, Kan said.

Yang later called a friend and told him his wife was sick and asked him to get someone to take her to hospital.