From correspondents in Haryana, India, 02:31 AM IST

A woman who got married less than six weeks back was stabbed over 20 times Thursday by two youths when she was alone at her home here, the police said.

The incident took place at about 11.15 a.m. when Nancy, 26, was alone at her home in Lakshmi Garden. She was married Aug 8 to Sumeet Naveen, an IT expert.

The attack on Nancy seems to be an act of professional criminals who left behind their gloves and dagger at the spot before fleeing on their motorcycle, a police official said.

After the attack, Nancy came down from the first floor of her house to the ground floor. On hearing her screams, the tenants as well as the neighbours took her to Sethi Hospital.

Ashok K. Sethi, the doctor attending to her, said that the assailants had stabbed Nancy at over 20 places.

Sethi said: 'She was stabbed on the scalp, face, neck and also on hands. Scalp and hands have been found fractured. She is in critical stage and not out of danger. We would be able to comment only after we get scan reports of her brain.'

The police officials said that the tenants as well as the neighbours had seen two youths going to Nancy's house in the morning.

Ten minutes later, the youths were seen rushing back to their motorcycle and they sped away, the police officials said.

The police suspect that the youths attacked Nancy from behind when she was working in the kitchen.

'She was stabbed multiple times as if the youths had an old enmity with her. Though gold jewellery worn by her is missing but we cannot term it as a robbery,' the investigating official said.

Naveen, who works as a software engineer with an automobile company, ruled out enmity with anyone.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)