An Austrian wife suffered serious burns after a booby-trapped explosion sent by her ex-husband.

The parcel exploded in the face of the wife as soon as he received it at her home in southern Austria.

Local police announced that they had arrested the victim and another individual, who pleaded guilty to the booby-trapped explosion that was placed outside the entrance to the wife's house in the south of the country.

The partner, a 29-year-old soldier, "put the booby-trapped parcel in front of the woman's apartment and knocked on the door before leaving the site," while the freewheeling nearby detonated the explosive device remotely.

Police said the men tried their homemade bomb this summer in a forest after buying their ingredients online.