A drunk maid tried to stab her love rival to death, a Dubai court heard on Thursday.

DP, 28, from Nepal, and an accomplice sprayed chilli pepper into the eyes of NS, 32, from Sri Lanka, before dragging her to a stairwell and stabbing her in the head, chest and belly.

Prosecutors said that the attack on April 2 this year was motivated by revenge as the Nepalese woman blamed the Sri Lankan, also a maid, for “stealing” her boyfriend.

The Sri Lankan recalled meeting the Nepali at about 5.30pm outside the apartment building in Silicon Oasis where they both lived. The Nepali asked to use her phone but she refused and carried on walking.

“She followed me inside then took me by surprise and started spraying my face and eyes with chilli pepper,” said the Sri Lankan.

The Nepali and her accomplice, NB, dragged the Sri Lankan by her hair to the lift and took her up to the eighth floor, pausing only to beat her with their fists.

When they arrived at the eighth floor they dragged her to the emergency exit stairwell and the accomplice bit the Sri Lankan on both arms while the Nepali produced a large knife from under her clothes and began stabbing her. She sustained wounds in the head, chest and belly. “I screamed for help but no one heard me, then I managed to escape to the seventh floor through the stairs and knocked on a door but no one opened up,” recalled the Sri Lankan.

She managed to reach her own apartment, lock herself inside and call her sponsor before she lost consciousness.

As police arrived at the apartment they found blood in the corridor, clumps of hair that had been pulled from the Sri Lankan’s skull and a mound of chilli pepper powder.

“I saw the victim on the floor bleeding heavily, her face and hair were filled with blood, she was also crying very hard,” recalled TA, a Yemeni policeman.

After explaining what had happened the Sri Lankan was taken to Rashid Hospital. “I told police that the defendant was not normal when she attacked me, she must have been drunk,” said the Sri Lankan.

Officers then visited the apartment of the Nepalese woman.

“We knocked on her door and when she opened up, her clothes were stained with blood,” said the lieutenant adding that the Nepali confessed to stabbing the Sri Lankan because she had “stolen her Pakistani boyfriend”.

“She told me she intended to end the Sri Lankan’s life so took a big knife from her kitchen and waited for her downstairs,” said the lieutenant.

Prosecutors said that during interrogation the maid confessed to a charge of attempted murder.

She failed to appear at the Misdemeanours Court to face a charge of drinking alcohol without a licence. A date has not yet been set for her first hearing at the Criminal Court for the charge of attempted murder. – The National