National Fried Chicken Day
Eat or Treat event at KFC Indonesia resulted in the death of a 45-year-old man. Wikipedia

A KFC chicken eating contest in Indonesia has been called off after a 45-year-old man choked to death while eating a chicken wing. Fredy Jayadi died while trying to eat three chicken wings under five minutes.

He was one of three contestants in the elimination round vying for the $1bn rupiah (£5,263, €6,745, $7,602) prize money. The contest, according to Jakarta Post was organised by O2 Accion in conjunction with fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. Jayadi had just finished his third piece of chicken wing when he started choking. When he was unable to dislodge the chicken piece after drinking water, he was taken to a nearby clinic.

In a statement, O2 Accion said it was "incredibly saddened" over the death of Jayadi at the Eat or Treat event at KFC Taman Semanan at Duri Kosambo in West Jakarta on 11 March. It said the event was initiated and fully supported and managed by the company. "Hence, we hold ourselves (and not any other parties) responsible towards such an unforeseen event, including any further issues arising out of this incident."

It added: "We are fully supporting the Jayadi family and as well as cooperating with inquiries from the authorities." It has also decided to completely stop the competition and that participants who had registered and paid for the event will be fully refunded.

O2 Accion chief programming officer Budi Raharja Sulaiman said that the company was responsible for the vent and had approached KFC. The fast food chain was listed as 'supporter' in O2 Accion's promotion Twitter account #Menang5Miliar meaning win5billion.

Abdul Wahab, Public Relations Officer for KFC Indonesia, told Okezone.com: "We just provided the venue. That was the deal we had with the organiser."

According to #menang5Miliar, contests were held simultaneously in 239 KFC outlets across Java and Bali. The event is based on the elimination model, with a grand final scheduled to take place in July. The winner would have walked away with 5bn rupiah.

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