Husband had 30kg dynamite for rival

Police in the Charente have arrested a man armed with 30kg of explosives and a gun as he lay in wait for his wife’s lover.

Photo Jonas Roux

The swoop, at a main road layby, took place after the rival panicked ahead of a planned meeting between the two men and called the police.

Officers seized the man, aged 59, along with the dynamite, petrol, detonators and a handgun. They believe he planned to either kill his wife’s lover and then himself or just commit suicide in front of him.

Police closed the D737 road around the layby north of Angoulême, where the arrest took place, while explosives experts made the area safe.