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An Argentine woman, Brenda Barattini, reportedly chopped off her 40-year-old boyfriend's penis - Representational image REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

An Argentine woman, 26, has been arrested for reportedly cutting off her boyfriend's genitals by using a pair of garden shears.

Brenda Barattini broke into her 40-year-old boyfriend — Sergio F's house in the dead of the night, and on early Sunday (26 November) morning, she attacked him while he was sleeping.

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It is not clear what prompted the woman to commit the crime.

Barattini was held after the victim, who was soaked in a pool of blood, managed to call paramedics.

Sergio was soon admitted to a hospital with "sharp cuts to the penis and testicles". He is said to be in a stable condition now.

However, attempts to reattach his penis failed, The Sun reported.

While some reports have said Barattini has admitted she assaulted the man, some are reporting that she is yet to give a statement and will not be formally questioned until next week after her psychiatric evaluation.

Tests are also reportedly being conducted to determine if Barattini was raped or sexually attacked as her lawyer Carlos Nayi, said: "There's justification for what happened. The information I've received is that she was the victim of a sex attack."

"She let him into her apartment because he's someone who's in a rock band and is an acquaintance of her brother but once inside, instead of removing a musical instrument as he was supposed to, he attacked her sexually and she assumed a defensive attitude. Whether or not she acted excessively is for the courts to decide," Nayi added.

Sergio's lawyer Eduardo Perez has refuted the claims and said: "They were in the middle of things. He wasn't asleep. They began with a sexual game in which he was blindfolded. There is evidence that was at the crime scene."

Meanwhile, media reports said that Barattini had been dubbed as the next Lorena Bobbitt by the Argentina press.

Bobbitt had chopped off her husband's penis with a kitchen knife in 1993 before throwing it into a field. She had claimed her husband had emotionally, sexually and physically abused her throughout the marriage.