Woman chokes on pancake and dies during contest

In the Omsk region of Russia, a woman who took part in a pancake-eating contest choked on a pancake and died, RIA Novosti said with reference to law enforcement agencies.

The 38-year-old Russian woman died before the ambulance arrived.

The pancake festival, during which the pancake eating contest was held, took place in a sanatorium near Omsk on Saturday, February 25.

On February 27, however, it was reported that the woman contestant did not die of asphyxia. A source in law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti about inconsistency in the case of the death of the woman who choked on a pancake.

"An autopsy did not confirm asphyxia as her cause of death. There are no signs indicating that the woman died because she choked on a pancake,” the source said adding that her cause of death was yet to be established.

A similar incident occurred in 2021 in Moscow, when during Maslenitsa Week (Pancake Week), a 16-year-old orphan stole pancakes intended for other children from the kitchen, choked and died. Paramedics could not save the teenager.