Official dies after being hit by javelin

A 75-year-old athletics official, identified as Dieter Strack by the local athletics association for Duesseldorf and Neuss, died yesterday after being speared through the throat by a javelin at an athletics meet in Duesseldorf on Sunday.

The elderly official at the city's Wilhelm Unger Games for young athletes is reported to have gone to measure a javelin throw, but was hit by the object as it landed, according to local media reports.

Paramedics revived the victim at the scene and an emergency doctor escorted him as he was rushed to the city's University Hospital, where he was operated on after losing a lot of blood from his main artery. After the accident, the meet was immediately cancelled.