Alex Salmond died 'while opening ketchup bottle' claim witnesses
The pro-independence firebrand died after speaking at a North Macedonia conference
ACADEMY FOR CULTURAL DIPLOMACY
Alex Salmond died "totally out of the blue" while trying to open a bottle of ketchup, an eyewitness has said.
The former Alba Party and SNP leader died aged 69 on Saturday at a diplomacy conference in North Macedonia, where police said he "fell sick and died on the spot" from a suspected massive heart attack.
Mark Donfried, director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, said attendees were eating lunch at the meeting in the historic lakeside city of Ohrid in the country's southwest when he died.
Speaking to Times Radio, Donfried said: "He came together with Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, also from the Alba Party in Scotland, and they were eating.
Attendees were eating lunch at the meeting in the historic lakeside city of Ohrid when Salmond died
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"Later on, Tasmina told me she was having trouble opening the ketchup and she reached over and said: 'Hey, can you give me a hand?'.
"And he was helping her with that when literally he fell back in his chair, totally out of the blue, without warning.
"Next to him was the former chief executive of the stock exchange of Cyprus and he basically took him in his arms.
"He was convinced, he told me later, that immediately he was unconscious.
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Paramedics tried to resuscitate the independence firebrand for as long as half an hour
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"So we don't think Alex actually suffered any pain, thank God.
"He felt his heart and he couldn't feel the heart rate then."
Donfried added that local paramedics tried to resuscitate the independence firebrand for as long as half an hour before pronouncing Salmond dead.
He continued: "Really, time stopped. The entire hotel - the entire conference - was in shock."
On Sunday night, a post-mortem examination ruled that Salmond died of a "massive heart attack"
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On Sunday night, a post-mortem examination ruled that Salmond died of a "massive heart attack", Donfried said.
While aides added that Salmond had been complaining about pains in his right leg on Saturday morning.
North Macedonia's interior ministry has confirmed that he died at 3.30pm local time (2.30pm BST).