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BEIJING, June 11: A Chinese woman who suffered from asthma died when she choked on her own mucus after getting overexcited watching China play against Brazil in a World Cup match, state media said Tuesday.
The Beijing Daily said the unnamed woman from eastern Jiangxi province was an avid football fan.
“When she saw the Chinese team lose the game by 0-4, she coughed up a mouthful of mucus, choked and fell to the ground gasping,” the report said.
Each time the woman watched something exciting, she would have trouble breathing, the report said.
The match Saturday was China’s second in the World Cup finals. China had been trying for 44 years to qualify for the World Cup and this year was the first year it succeeded in entering the competition, generating strong public interests in the games.
Her family had warned her against watching football matches, but she refused to miss the chance of seeing the Chinese team compete against the four-time champion Brazilian team.
SEOUL: A young British fan was still in a coma on Tuesday after breaking his skull in a fall at Monday’s World Cup game between Portugal and Poland in the South Korean city of Chonju, soccer’s world governing body FIFA said.
FIFA communications director Keith Cooper said the fan, who the British Foreign Office said was Scottish, slipped in the wet and fell into the security moat.
Cooper would not give the identity of the fan who is being treated in a hospital in Chonju.
“He suffered a broken skull and is still in a coma,” Cooper told a news conference. “He was running around the lower concourse in the rain and slipped and fell over the front barrier and into the moat.
“The stadium in Chonju has been rigorously checked for safety standards and it conforms to the safety standards. This really was a tragic accident. Nobody else was involved. FIFA regrets it very deeply and we wish him well.” —AFP/Reuters
