Alex Salmond died while 'trying to open a bottle of ketchup' in front of delegates

Director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, Mark Donfried, said Salmond fell back in his chair.

Former First Minister Alex Salmond "died while opening a bottle of ketchup" after collapsing at a table in front of horrified delegates, it was claimed today.

The 69-year-old Alba Party leader, who had two spells in charge of the Scottish National Party, passed away in North Macedonia on Saturday.

He was in the Baltic nation attending a conference alongside other members of his Alba Party, including Alba Party chair Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.

Mark Donfried, director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, said attendees at the conference were eating lunch when they saw him collapse while trying to open a ketchup bottle.

The Mirror reports that he told Times Radio Salmond had arrived to eat lunch alongside Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who asked him to help out with opening the ketchup.

He said: "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?’." Mr Donfried added that he "fell back in his chair" while helping her "without warning".

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He continued: "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. 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."

The director added that paramedics attempted to resuscitate Mr Salmond for 30 minutes. But they were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead. He added: "Really time stopped. The entire hotel, the entire conference was in shock.

The death triggered a political shockwave in the UK, with major figures - among them the Prime Minister and King - issuing public statements in his memory.

Details surrounding his death are yet to be fully confirmed but North Macedonia’s interior ministry confirmed that Mr Salmond died at around 3.30pm local time (2.30pm BST).

The Alba Party later confirmed in a note commemorating their dead leader that a post-mortem carried out found he had died of a heart attack.

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