A CHEMISTRY student has reportedly been killed by what is believed to be exploding chewing gum.

Russian news agency Ria Novosti reports the 25-year-old chemistry student was found dead with his jaw blown off after he was working on a computer at his parents’ house in the Ukraine city of Konotop .

"A loud pop was heard from the student's room," a city police chief aide told ukranews.com.

"When his relatives entered the room they saw that the lower part of the young man's face had been blown off."

The man was studying at Ukraine ’s Kiev Polytechnic Institute and was known for his habit of dipping chewing in citric acid.

Ria Novosti reports police found both citric acid packets and “some kind of explosive material” on a table in his parents’s room.

They believe he may have confused the two packets, dipping thegum into the explosive material rather than the citric acid.