The Jing'an Procuratorate has approved the arrest of a man accused of beating his 68-year-old mother-in-law to death with a hammer, Shanghai Evening Post reports.

Wang Yuhu and his wife, Fan, often quarrelled over trivial matters. They eventually started living apart, but Wang refused Fan's requests for a divorce.

At 7 pm on August 6, Wang called Fan and told her that he wanted to reconcile with her, but she turned him down.

Knowing Fan was at her mother's home, Wang asked her to wait there and he would come over to discuss the conditions for a divorce. He took a hammer along with him.

Fearing Wang and their daughter would only quarrel again, Fan's parents had asked her to leave before Wang arrived.

Seeing his wife was not there, Wang started arguing with his mother-in-law. When she turned away from him, he brought the hammer down on her head.

Wang continued to strike her repeatedly as she lay on the ground. By the time his father-in-law was able to run out for help, the elderly woman had died.

Wang called crime report hotline "110" and surrendered himself to police when he realized what he had done.

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