Torch bearer dies of suspect heart attack

A 74-year-old man died of a suspected heart attack on Thursday shortly after running a leg of the Olympic torch relay.

Sydney Olympic officials said Ron King collapsed after completing his 500-metre run outside Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales.

The former cycling enthusiast was rushed to hospital but died shortly after his arrival.

King is the first person to have died after carrying the flame during its 100-day odyssey around Australia, although a second man died of cancer in June on the same day he was due to carry the torch.

The torch is being carried by more than 10,000 runners in a journey from Greece through Australia to Sydney before igniting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony on September 15.

It has attracted huge crowd but also would-be saboteurs and publicity-seekers since it arrived in the country on June 8.

A teenager tried to snatch the flame from a woman runner on the New South Wales north coast a week ago, just 24 hours after another youth tried to douse the torch with a fire extinguisher.

A month earlier, another teenager unsuccessfully tried to grab the torch from the official runner.