A fitness fanatic was killed when a weightlifting bar fell onto his neck as he worked out on his front driveway.
Phen Channy, 27, was alone in the house when the freak gym accident happened on his weights bench outside his front doot in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 3.
The shirtless student fixed more weights onto the barbell than he was used to before lying back on the bench and trying to lift it.
Upon starting with the workout, he was seen on the home’s CCTV system seemingly struggling to push the bar up by the way his legs moved. A crashing sound was then heard in the background as he legs moved frantically before going still.
Phen’s devastated uncle said: ‘We were in the US and he lived alone in the house. Sometimes we would check on him to see how he was doing then I noticed he had been on the weights bench for a long time.
‘I was worried so I tried calling him but he did not answer. I knew then something was wrong. I feel so bad for him, he was still very young.’
The worried uncle asked their neighbours to check on the man and they were shocked to discover that the young lad appeared unconscious on the bench.
Police were called to the scene and confirmed that he was already dead. His body was taken to the hospital for an autopsy.
Medics found that his cause of death was suffocation after the iron bar fell onto his neck and prevented him from breathing until he fell unconscious and died.
The devastated uncle added: ‘I don’t know how this cruel thing could happen to him, he was only trying to be fit and take care of his body but it cost him his life.’
The youngster’s body was returned to the family for funeral arrangements.