A MAN has tragically died during his family’s Christmas celebrations after choking to death on a piece of panettone.
Giovanni Lopez, 47, was enjoying a slice of the holiday bread during a Christmas Eve lunch when tragedy struck.
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Giovanni Lopez (right) died after choking on a piece of panettone on Christmas EveCredit: Newsflash
A piece of the traditional sweet Italian bread combined with a slice of mandarin blocked his airwaysCredit: Getty
The man, from Settimo Torinese in the Italian region of Piedmont, collapsed while eating with his family at his parents’ home.
Frantic family members attempted to help him and alerted emergency services.
An ambulance arrived at the house at 2.30pm on Wednesday afternoon.
Despite paramedics’ best resuscitation efforts, they were unable to save Lopez.
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A medical examiner later confirmed his death.
Investigators say Lopez’s airways had been blocked by a lump of the panettone – a traditional Italian sweet bread – combined with a piece of fresh mandarin.
The fatal choking was ruled an accident.
In a heartbreaking post to social media platform Facebook, Lopez’s brother Domenico, said: “Giovanni, you will always be in our hearts”.
“You were pure, generous and kind, perhaps too much so,” he wrote.
“You always thought of others and never of yourself.
“I hope the Lord will be kind to you and that you have gone on to a better life. I love you, my brother.”
The Italian tragedy comes after a mother-of-three was killed and her 13-year-old daughter left critically wounded in a horror shooting just days before Christmas.
Authorities confirmed Jason Kenney, 47, died by suicide following the shock incident on Monday.
The horrific ordeal took place during a televised NFL game, where Kenney killed his wife, Crystal, and shot his stepdaughter before turning the gun on himself.
Sheriff Grady Judd from Polk County in Florida said police were alerted by Crystal’s 12-year-old son, who had fled to a neighbouring house.
The couple’s one-year-old daughter was also found uninjured and asleep in her crib.
Crystal was killed by Jason Kenney on the Monday before ChristmasCredit: Facebook
He also shot Crystal’s 13-year-old daughter, who remains in a critical but stable conditionCredit: Facebook
The late-night argument was sparked when Crystal didn’t want Jason to keep watching the NFL game between the San Francisco 49ers and Indiana Colts inside the house.
A search of the family home after the tragedy revealed that the pair had been dealing with private struggles, with a note from Crystal to her husband telling him to get help for addiction issues.
“You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God,” it read.
According to the Polk County Sheriff, Jason had been drinking and watching the game in a shed away from the house but returned inside for the last few minutes.
Police officers arrived at the scene after the 12-year-old boy reported hearing gunshots and found Crystal dead inside the house with a shot to the head.
They later found her daughter severely wounded in a bedroom with two gunshot wounds: one to her face and another to her shoulder.
“She said, ‘I begged him, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,’ and he shot me anyway,” Sheriff Judd said at a police conference, recalling what the girl told him.
She is in a critical but stable condition and remains in hospital.
Kenney later turned the gun on himself and died at the sceneCredit: Facebook
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