French three-year-old chokes to death on hidden Kinder egg toy

A three-year-old French girl has died after choking on a toy hidden inside a Kinder Surprise chocolate egg, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The girl’s mother told police she was with her daughter when the child swallowed a small plastic wheel that broke off from a toy hidden inside the egg, a much-loved product made by Italian company Ferrero.

“The child’s grandfather arrived quickly and managed to extract the object”, but the girl had fallen into a coma and died on Saturday night in a hospital in the southwestern city of Toulouse, said a statement from prosecutor Cecile Deprade.

An autopsy confirmed “death following mechanical asphyxiation”.

A warning on Kinder Surprise eggs says they are not for children aged three and under.

According to the Kinder website, more than 30 billion eggs have been sold around the world with more than 8,000 different surprises hidden inside.