A brutal ex accused of a horrifying hammer attack on his eight-months-pregnant former partner is being hunted by police in Brazil.

Medics managed to save the unborn infant with an emergency C-section operation while the 34-year-old mother was in hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

Victim Vanessa Brito dos Santos was so badly beaten around the head and face at her home in the early hours of 14th December that she could not speak.

While her baby is said to be doing well, she remains in intensive care in a serious condition.

Her attacker is the newborn’s father, report local media.

Mother Ana Cristina told local media: “She woke up very restless after surgery and she didn’t remember me.

“She can’t speak because he completely broke her mouth with the hammer. He gave my daughter so many hammer blows she can’t speak.”

Vanessa’s family says the harrowing attack was carried out by her jilted ex-partner.

Her sister told local media: “She had lived with him for 17 years. And she had always been threatened and attacked, until she decided to leave him.

“She was separated from him, but he had been threatening her.”

Vanessa had managed to escape from their home in Belford Roxo, where he had kept her against her will, eight months ago.

But three months later, he had discovered her new address.

Vanessa sustained serious injuries to her head and face in the attack, which is being treated by Civil Police as attempted femicide.

Her ex-partner allegedly used a crowbar to break into the house, which was left covered in blood following the attack.

She had already been beaten unconscious by the time her daughter called for help.

Following the attack, the suspect fled the scene.

Vanessa was first taken to a local health facility before being transferred to a larger hospital, where she was given the emergency C-section.

The newborn baby is the former couple’s sixth child.

The suspect has been named as Adriano dos Santos Salvador. Police are now working to track him down.