US doctor says vuvuzelas can kill

A US doctor has warned that vuvuzelas can kill.

The plastic horns, which achieved notoriety at this year's soccer World Cup here in South Africa, can prove fatal to the user because they put increased pressure on blood vessels.

Dr Pavel Bindra, a cardiac electrophysiologist who practices in California, says that extensive blowing of the trumpet-like instrument could lead to high blood pressure and the development of an aneurysm, which "inflates like a balloon on a blood vessel and can eventually pop".

The doctor warned that using the infamous horn for the 90-minute duration of a soccer match could prove fatal.

He said: "Any rupture in an aneurysm is serious, but if it happens in the brain, blood can fill the skull cavity and the head can burst like a pumpkin, resulting in death."