A Romanian woman is threatening to sue her online date for calling her a hippo after he claimed that she lied about her weight.

After meeting via an online dating service, Nicoleta Popescu told Gabriel Malinescu that she was eight stone, blonde and blue-eyed.

The pair decided to meet after two months of online flirting and phone calls. But Malinescu, 33, from Bucharest, told the National newspaper: "I expected to see a blonde, blue-eyed, slim beauty in front of me.

"But what I got was a gigantic hippo. She told me she weighed eight stones but she was more like 18. The passionate embrace I had long awaited was certainly off the cards when we met," he said.

Gabriel told Nicoleta she was not his type and that he never wanted to hear from her again.

But Nicoleta, 29, now says that she will sue Gabriel for emotional distress.

"He hurt my feelings and has caused me considerable anguish," she said. "He has obviously not heard the saying that beauty is on the inside."