A NURSING home resident choked to death on his lunch an inquest heard.

Peter Starr, who was 89, was staying at Edensor Nursing Home in Clacton when he died.

Coroner’s officer David Dinnell said: “He was sat at a table in the care home dining room and he was seen by staff to turn blue and begin to choke.”

Attempts were made to remove the blockage before he was moved to his room at the Orwell Road home.

Mr Starr could not be revived.

A post mortem examination gave the cause of death as asphyxia.

Mr Starr was also suffering from ischemic heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease at the time of his death, on October 15.

Essex’s senior coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray said during the inquest: “This gentleman was eating his lunch when unfortunately he appears to have choked.”

She ruled he died as a result of an accident and asked for the court’s sympathies to be passed to his family.