Man attempts to blow himself up after lover dumps him

China:   Breaking up is hard to do, but for one melodramatic man, it was almost suicide.

The jilted lover was so upset when he was dumped by his girlfriend that he turned up at her house wrapped in firecrackers threatening to blow himself up.

Ho Jen, 35, was a poetry fan and used to lavish his former girlfriend Lili Lung, 33, with flowers and chocolates.

But his world fell apart when Lili left him for another man, saying that his romantic gestures were too much.

A friend of Lili's, Yue Yao, 33, said that at first Lili found his romantic side quite adorable, but after a few months she began to get tired of it.

"She has quite a fiery personality and likes a bit of spice in her life.

"He never disagreed with her and although she was very fond of him she decided she needed something different - and that meant someone else."

Although Ho attempted to win Lili back with verse, she would not be moved, which is when he made his next unbelievable gesture.

He wrapped hundreds of firecrackers around his body and went to Lili's house in the city of Hanzhong in China's north-western Shaanxi province, telling her stunned parents that if she would not see him, he would blow himself up.

When police officers arrived he was sitting outside the house wrapped in a necklace of firecrackers.

A police spokesman said: "He explained that he wanted to win his ex girlfriend back, and admitted that he had threatened to blow himself to pieces.

"Officers found the firecrackers under his jacket and when they arrested him, he burst into tears.

"Love can be tough, but so can the law and he was charged with endangering life."

Ho is now awaiting sentencing and could face up to three years in jail.