?An Ari­ma street ven­dor who had threat­ened to kill his es­tranged lover and then him­self, com­mit­ted sui­cide on Tues­day af­ter chop­ping the woman, who sur­vived the at­tack. The in­ci­dent took place around 8 pm, po­lice said, af­ter the man, Nar­ine Singh, of Matu­ra, at­tacked Mar­i­lyn Gal­lan, 56, as she walked along Pro Queen Street in the heart of the east­ern bor­ough, me­tres away from the po­lice sta­tion.

Po­lice said af­ter chop­ping the woman Singh ran west along Far­fan Street and col­lapsed on Wood­ford Street where he died. Po­lice said the woman was chopped four times and re­mains ward­ed in a se­ri­ous con­di­tion at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex.

An em­ploy­ee of Cir­cle Square Recre­ation­al Pub, where Singh was once em­ployed, said yes­ter­day Singh had threat­ened to kill the woman and then him­self in the past. She said the man, who she de­scribed as "jol­ly and a lit­tle ig­no­rant," had a tem­per, was warned against such vi­o­lent threats and would calm down. She said on two pre­vi­ous oc­ca­sions Singh at­tempt­ed to take his life, once by in­gest­ing poi­son and an­oth­er by jump­ing off a build­ing.

An­oth­er em­ploy­ee said Singh met Gal­lan at the bar and the two be­gan a re­la­tion­ship which last­ed two years. "We talk to him about it, oth­er peo­ple talk to him but we didn't think he would do it but it wasn't a sur­prise per se," the woman in­ter­rupt­ed, adding that the cou­ple had bro­ken up about two months ago. She said Gal­lan, who is mar­ried, end­ed the re­la­tion­ship be­cause of Singh's er­rat­ic be­hav­iour.

An­oth­er street ven­dor, who asked not to be iden­ti­fied, said af­ter see­ing Singh chop Gal­lan he and oth­er men chased af­ter him. While run­ning be­hind Singh they saw him pelt away the cut­lass. When he was con­front­ed the men be­gan beat­ing Singh who de­nied chop­ping the woman. Dur­ing that strug­gle, po­lice said, Singh drank poi­son and col­lapsed.

"He was just walk­ing down the road with his bag and then start to pelt chop. It's when we see it we in­ter­vene. I used to see them talk­ing nor­mal," the ven­dor said. A passer­by who saw a stack of cash in Singh's pock­et took it and left, one eye­wit­ness said.

Oth­er street ven­dors said Singh was gam­bling ear­li­er in the day and be­lieved he had the en­tire at­tack planned. The chop­ping took place just out­side a shoe shop as Gal­lan made her way to the San Rafael taxi stand on her way home.