A teenager in the US collapsed at school and died after drinking three highly-caffeinated drinks too quickly, a coroner has ruled.
Davis Allen Cripe, 16, from South Carolina, collapsed while at school in April from a heart problem.
He had drunk a McDonald’s coffee, a Mountain Dew fizzy drink and an energy drink in less than two hours, the coroner found.
The inquest heard the healthy teenager had no pre-existing heart condition and he died from a “caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia”.
But Gary Watts, coroner of Richland County, added: “This is not a caffeine overdose.
“We're not saying that it was the total amount of caffeine in the system, it was just the way that it was ingested over that short period of time, and the chugging of the energy drink at the end was what the issue was with the cardiac arrhythmia."
According to Reuters news agency, the Mayo Clinic’s advice is that up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day is safe for most adults.
This is equivalent to four cups of coffee or 10 cans of Coca Cola.
The coroner added: “We're not trying to speak out totally against caffeine.
"We believe people need to pay attention to their caffeine intake and how they do it, just as they do with alcohol or cigarettes."
