A man who continued to make bombs even after he partially lost his arm and eyesight while experimenting with explosives will face trial in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, a regional police department said on Tuesday.
Police found “about a dozen types of explosives” in the apartment of 41-year-old Alexei Muromtsev, including nitroglycerin, mercury(II) fulminate, TNT, RDX and black powder.
“The man literally lived on a powder keg,” the police department said in a statement.
Muromtsev, who graduated from the chemistry and biology department of the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, took an interest in explosives after he was refused the job of an explosives expert in a mine.
He worked as a chemistry teacher in a local school and started experimenting with explosives at home. During one of his experiments, he managed to throw explosive substance that caught fire out of a window a second before it exploded. The blast shattered windows in many apartments.
“He got off with nothing more than a fright that time, but six months later he couldn’t prevent a blast in his apartment,” police said. “He was badly injured, he partially lost his left arm and almost lost his eyesight… But health troubles did not prevent him from continuing his experiments. ”
During questioning, Muromtsev said experiments with explosives were his only reason to live.
“I conducted my experiments and made explosives because of interest. All those experiments are just my hobby, I did not want to harm anyone,” the statement quotes Muromtsev as saying.
The man was charged with illegally making, posessing and transporting explosives. He faces up to four years in prison if found guilty.
