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08. 02. 12. - 10:00

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08. 02. 12. - 10:00

Miserable plot

Romanian Times

Jilted hubby Florin Dan Munteanu, 38, who allegedly tried to kill his wife with a bomb hidden inside a copy of the book 'Les Miserables' has been arrested after it blew up his mother-in-law instead, say police in Petrosan, Romania.

The hubby - who hollowed out the book and packed it with broken glass and gunpowder and a battery for a detonator - told police he wanted revenge on his wife for leaving him to live with her mother.

But his mother-in-law - now in hospital with serious blast injuries - unwrapped the package by mistake and triggered the bomb when she opened the book's cover, say prosecutors.

He reportedly hatched the plot after a drunken session with a pal who told him that you could make a bomb by following the instructions on the internet.

The pair then downloaded the plans and put the bomb together by cutting the middle out of a hardback copy of the book and sending it to the woman marked "private and personal".

A police spokesman said: "The mother-in-law was worried that it might be something threatening written from her former son-in-law - and wanted to spare her daughter the distress - but she never thought that it might be a bomb.

"The book was wrapped with a lace - when she pulled it a spring flicked it open and it exploded."

The woman, aged 52, was seriously injured in her face by the blast and is currently in an intensive care ward. Doctors believe she will survive but are waiting to see if her eyesight can be saved.

Police have arrested Munteanu from Teleorman county, in Furculesti, as well as pal Alin Florin Balcescu, 39, from Plosca, also in Teleorman.

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