Alex Salmond died while trying to help a colleague open a bottle of ketchup, eyewitnesses have claimed.
The Alba Party leader collapsed on Saturday (12/10) after delivering a speech in North Macedonia, with his death being confirmed as a heart attack.
Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007. He stood down from the role after failing to secure independence in the 2014 referendum, handing over to his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.
He began his second stint as SNP leader in 2004, securing power in Holyrood in 2007. That was followed by a sweeping victory in Scottish parliamentary elections in 2011 – the precursor to the independence vote.
Salmond eventually resigned from the SNP in 2018 in the wake of sexual harassment allegations, forming and leading the rival Alba party. He was cleared of all criminal charges in 2020, following a trial.
Speaking to reporters following his death, Mark Donfried, director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, said Mr Salmond had been helping Alba Party Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh open a bottle of ketchup when he collapsed.
Donfried told Times Radio: “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.
He said it felt as though “time stopped”, while emergency responders tried to resuscitate Mr Salmond for half-an-hour before he was pronounced dead.
“The entire hotel, the entire conference, was in shock,” he added.
Guests reportedly later said Mr Salmond had been complaining about pains in his leg earlier that morning.
Related: Jenrick reveals what his first act as Tory leader will be and it’s terrifying