A JAPANESE piano teacher has been arrested on suspicion of killing her "virtual husband" after becoming enraged that he suddenly divorced her in an online game.

The 43-year-old woman allegedly hacked into a man's computer and killed off his avatar in the popular interactive game MapleStory, the Associated Press reported.

The woman, who is in custody on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, allegedly used the man's ID and password to log on and carry out the virtual maplestory mesos murder in May, said a police official in the northern city of Sapporo, according to the AP.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the police official quoted the woman as telling investigators.

The man behind the woman's online husband, a 33-year-old office worker, complained to police when he discovered that his online avatar was dead.