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The paper outlines an innovative test procedure aimed at a comprehensive assessment of plane stress tearing in sheet metals and some results of its validation. This study gives an additional ground for updating the procedure by taking into account several experimental findings on the formation and extension of two slanted cracks emanating from a single open hole in plate-type specimens. The focus is on contrasting the ductile fracture behaviour under uncontained yielding in specimens with a small and a relatively large width-to-thickness ratio