A police officer died on Monday when he tried to pick up a rooster during an illegal cockfight in the Philippines. The rooster was forced to fight with a blade stuck to his foot. The blade sliced the officer in his leg, cutting his femoral artery.
Cockfighting is popular in the Philippines where money is bet on the outcome of a fight, usually to the death, between two roosters with blades on their feet.
It has been banned along with other sporting and cultural events during the coronavirus pandemic to prevent large crowds from gathering and spreading the virus.
The accident happened in the central province of Northern Samar when the police officer picked up a fighting cock as he gathered evidence of the forbidden event.
The cock’s blade struck his left thigh and he bled to death, provincial police chief Colonel Arnel Apud told AFP. “It was an unfortunate accident and a piece of bad luck that I cannot explain,” Apud said. Three people were arrested and two fighting cocks seized, he added.