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A 25-year-old chemistry student died in horrific circumstances when a piece of chewing gum exploded in his mouth.

Vladimir Likhonos had been working with explosive chemicals when he is believed to have made one fatal mistake.

According to reports at the time, the Ukrainian had a habit of dipping his chewing gum into citric acid (the substance that makes things like lemons sour) in order to enhance the flavour.

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Tragically, that morning in 2009 Likhonos got his substances mixed up, and placed his gum into a highly explosive powder.

Upon popping the gum back in his mouth, the substance detonated, with the blast tearing off his jaw and the lower part of his face.

Speaking to the media at the time, police spokeswoman Elvira Biganova said around 100 grammes of the suspected explosive was found on the table where he had been working, and that the powder was nearly identical to citric acid.

“Anybody could have mixed them up,” she said.

Emergency medics are said to have rushed to the scene but were unable to help due to the severity of the injuries suffered.

“Even some of our seasoned officers, who have seen a thing or two, even they were pretty badly shaken up by what they found,” Biganova added.

A bomb squad was called after experts determined the substance was too dangerous to transport. Local reports suggested it may have been up to four times more powerful than TNT, although this claim is difficult to substantiate.

Tatyana Kushnerova, an assistant officer with the local police force, told reporters that investigators believed the injuries were instantaneous, and the explosion detonated immediately as the “chewing bomb” hit his mouth.

While some at the time claimed the incident took place at in 2009 a local University where Vladimir studied, other reports suggest he may have already been expelled, and that he was carrying out experiments inside his own house.

According to UniLad, Irina Lisovskaya, deputy dean of the chemical engineering faculty, said: “He got an A in chemistry, but his grades in other subjects were average.

"Yes, Vladimir was not a poor student, but he never graduated [as] he could not defend his diploma thesis and was expelled last year."