A POWER station worker died after apparently choking on a pickled egg in a Berkeley pub.

Emergency services were called to the Boars Head Inn on Lynch Road on Saturday evening where a 55-year-old man was choking.

A spokesman for South West Ambulance Service said they had received an emergency call at 9.46pm.

Two rapid response cars and one double crewed ambulance attended the incident where there was one casualty.

Although he was conscious at the scene, he suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of choking and while CPR was carried out, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Gloucestershire Police spokesman said they had been called to the sudden death of a local man at around 11.15pm. “It is believed that the man choked on a piece of food,” said the spokesman.

“The coroner and the man’s next of kin have been informed.

“Police are not treating the man’s death as suspicious.”

A woman, who asked not to be named, said people had been taking part in a competition to swallow pickled eggs.

She said: “It’s sad isn’t it?

“Terrible. We were all very shocked.

“People shouldn’t be playing these games, especially if they’ve been drinking.”

The pub’s landlady said she was not able to comment without the permission of the man’s family, but she described the incident as a “sudden accident”.

A spokeswoman for Magnox, who manage the nearby decommissioned Berkeley power Station, confirmed that the deceased man had worked at the power station.

He was a contractor who had worked on site for around five years.