Too hot to handle! American left with hole in throat after eating red chilli

Now that’s too hot!

A 47-year-old American ended up with an inch-wide hole in his oesophagus after eating the brutally hot ‘ghost pepper’ during an eating contest.

The unnamed man was taken to hospital after eating a ghost pepper, also known as a bhut jolokia.

When he was admitted to hospital, doctors found an inch-wide hole in his oesophagus, and he underwent emergency surgery and remained in hospital for 23 days.

The chilli pepper scores around one million Scoville heat units -- the unit used to measure heat -- making it more than twice as hot as the jalapeño pepper.

According to the case study detailed in The Journal of Emergency Medicine, the man ate a burger laced with ghost pepper puree as part of an extreme-eating contest.

He soon experienced chest pain and severe vomiting and was taken to A&E.

The ghost pepper, or bhut jolokia, was considered the world's hottest chilli until 2013 when it was surpassed by the Carolina Reaper pepper.

Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Laszlo Balogh/Reuters