Choking man saved by vacuum cleaner

A Japanese man choking on a sticky rice cake was saved when his daughter sucked the glob out with a vacuum cleaner.

Local fire station official Toshiyuki Matsuura said the 70-year-old man from northern Japan suddenly began gasping for air as he chewed on a piece of mochi, a food traditionally eaten by the Japanese around New Year.

Family members first tried unsuccessfully to remove the food with their fingers. Then the man's 46-year-old daughter grabbed a vacuum cleaner, took out his dentures and stuck the hose into his mouth with the switch turned to high.

Matsuura said the gooey white mass slowly emerged, and the man - whose name was not disclosed - had almost fully recovered by the time paramedics arrived.

"A vacuum cleaner could be useful in an emergency like that, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone because it's tricky," Matsuura said. "He was rather lucky."

Every year, a handful of mostly elderly Japanese die after choking on mochi rice cakes, which are usually served grilled and wrapped in seaweed or in a broth.

Mochi is one of the most widely recognised Japanese symbols of the New Year, when many homes and shrines are decorated with ritual offerings of hardened blocks of rice, which become chewy and sticky when cooked.