Love does hurt, even physically, as an 83-year-old Chinese man found out after he got a broken arm for a suspected love affair with his 90-year-old neighbor, police said.

The culprit, surnamed Wen from Dongfang city of China's southern island province of Hainan, was the son of the old man's neighbor, local newspaper Hainan Special Zone News said Friday, citing police sources.

Rumors about bereaved Fu being "in love" with Wen's widowed mother had been spreading in their village for quite some time, the paper said. And Wen has always felt very ashamed of this, the paper reported.

On the afternoon of March 10, Wen returned home from an outing only to find Fu in his home chatting with his mother. Losing his self-control, an irate Wen took up a club and beat the old man, leaving him a fractured right arm and several bruises.

Wen has been arrested by police for assault, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2008)