Exploding Chewing Gum Blows Off Student’s Jaw

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A chemistry student has been found dead with his jaw blown off by what is believed to be exploding chewing gum, reports have said.

BubbleGum-main_FullStudent may have dipped his gum in an explosive substance

The 25-year-old’s disfigured remains were discovered at his parent’s home in the northern Ukrainian city of Konotop, reports in the Eastern European country said.

The young man, who studied at Kiev Polytechnic Institute, was working at a computer late on Saturday when the alleged explosion happened.

“A loud pop was heard from the student’s room,” the ukranews.com website said, citing an aide to the city’s police chief.

“When his relatives entered the room, they saw that the lower part of the young man’s face had been blown off.”

A forensic examination established that the chewing gum was covered with an unidentified chemical substance, thought to be some type of explosive material.

The student apparently had a bizarre habit of chewing gum after dipping it into citric acid, Russian news agency Ria Novosti said.

Officers found both citric acid packets and a similar-looking unidentified substance, believed to be some kind of explosive material, on a table near the body, the agency continued.

Investigators suspect that the student simply confused the packets and put gum covered with explosive material into his mouth.

Forensic experts were to travel from Kiev to investigate the substance, as local authorities feared it may explode if transported.

Thanks Janet

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15 thoughts on “Exploding Chewing Gum Blows Off Student’s Jaw”

  1. Kids always shooting their mouths off.

    Does anybody know why someone would dip bubblegum in citric acid before chewing? Does it give the gum a citrus taste?

  2. Anybody else disbelieve this story? I trust news from Russia as much as British tabloids.
    / And, yes, I do know it’s from the Ukraine. Still sketchy.

  7. Scott^^, that’s just so wrong, it’s hilarious…
    Tim, citric acid causes a slight tingling sensation on the tongue (I used to work in a food processing factory and used to dip my finger into it like sherbert), it can, however, taste pretty sour!
    Sue, I read this earlier on Yahoo news and had a similar thought. I think maybe somebody has watched the original Tom Cruise Mission:Impossible once too often…

  8. I’m not buying it for one second. Anything that it could be “dipped in” would end up a very thin layer, which simply won’t be that explosive. Possibly, something more to the story than we’ve heard, more likely, it was simply made up. is “ukranews.com” Russian for “The Onion”?

  10. When I took russian there is a saying there.

    Pravda Ie Nyet Isvestia, Isvestia Ie Nyet Pravda – There is no Truth in News and no News in Truth is what is basically translates to.

    Pravda and Isvestia are their two main newspapers. Think New York Times and USA today. I really never trust stories from russia.

    To get that kind of an explosion for just a chemical dusting you need something more powerful then TNT. Did not happen. Unless the kid put a cherry bomb in his mouth and lit the fuse. Its an impossibility.

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