A man in the southern Vietnamese province of Bac Lieu turned himself in to the police for pouring boiling water on his wife over a minor altercation.

Vo Mai Thy, 22, chided her husband Dang Thanh Lap, 28, Saturday for asking her mother to go out and buy some instant noodles for him. In a fit of anger, he threw the water he had been boiling for the noodles on her.

She was rushed to the Bac Lieu General Hospital, where doctors said she had burns almost all over her body but there was no threat to her life.

The police released Lap, who lives with his wife's family, on health grounds, and said they would proceed with the case after Thy get a disability assessment.