An 83-year-old woman has been taken taken to hospital after being stabbed by her husband of the same age in the town of Geldrop in Noord Brabant.

The stabbing took place in the early hours of Wednesday, a police spokesman told local broadcaster Omroep Brabant. It is not clear how serious the woman’s injuries are. The house has been sealed for forensic investigation, the spokesman said.

Her husband has been arrested.

This is the third incident involving elderly couples to hit the headlines in the last two weeks. An 86-year-old man from Oud-Alblas near Dordrecht was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison, six of them suspended, for attempting to strangle his wife of almost 60 years.

In another case, police in Drenthe are investigating the death of a 72-year-old woman whose body was found in the Noord-Willemskanaal in Tynaarlo in Drenthe on Monday.

The woman, from Assen, had been reported missing. A man aged 80, also from Assen, has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in her death and is being questioned in custody.