A 61-year-old patient was stabbed to death in a room at St Luke's Hospital's Medical Ward 4 yesterday afternoon and the police said they were holding the victim's husband to help in investigations.

Doris Schembri, 61, of Santa Venera, died from multiple stab wounds.

The police, who were informed of the incident at about 1 p.m., said the man, also 61, gave himself up at the Hamrun police station soon after the stabbing.

The couple were estranged.

Investigations revealed the woman had been repeatedly hit by a pointed and sharp instrument, the police said. She died on the spot.

The knife used to stab her was removed from the room by the police.

Magistrate Joseph Cassar appointed a team of experts to help in an inquiry into the murder.

The man is expected to be charged with murder shortly, possibly today.

The victim's husband, Anthony, had undergone criminal proceedings in 1992 after he had attacked his wife with a pair of scissors. He had then pleaded he suffered from a medical condition. Eyewitnesses said a man walked calmly down the ward corridor and went straight to Mrs Schembri's private room and closed the door behind him. At the time it was not visiting hours and there was nobody else except for the victim and her aggressor in the room when the stabbing occurred.

A young woman who was at her mother's bedside close to Mrs Schembri's room heard calls for help coming from the victim's room. She opened the door thinking Mrs Schembri needed assistance and, according to another patient, she saw a man hitting Mrs Schembri.

The young woman started screaming and ran to the nurses to tell them what was happening.

A patient in a bed close to Mrs Schembri's room said the woman was found lying on the floor.

By that time, the aggressor had hurried out of the ward going straight to the Hamrun police station to give himself up.

Nurses in the ward bore visible signs of shock at the killing.

Mrs Schembri had been in hospital for several days. A patient, who preferred to remain unidentified, said a man was noticed loitering in the ward's corridor on Wednesday.