The world's oldest marathon runner, Fauja Singh, died at the age of 115 after being hit by a car.
Indian police said Singh was hit by an unknown vehicle on Monday as he walked on a road near his hometown of Beas, in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab, CNN reported. He was taken to Sriman Hospital in Jalandhar district, where he succumbed to head and rib injuries, said Jalandhar Senior Superintendent of Police Harvinder Singh Virk.
"We are working to identify the vehicle. We are using surveillance footage from the area to find the vehicle and we have sent teams working on it," the superintendent told CNN, adding that there was a witness to the accident.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Singh, calling him "an exceptional athlete with incredible determination." Singh was born in India in 1911 and moved to London after the deaths of his wife and son.
He managed to complete nine marathons, which he only started running at the age of 90.
"Running showed me kindness and brought me back to life by making me forget all my traumas and sorrows," Singh said in an earlier interview with CNN.
Singh set his personal best in Toronto in 2003, when he crossed the finish line in five hours and 40 minutes.
In Toronto in 2011, he became the first person over 100 years old to finish a marathon, and he participated in his last race in 2013 in Hong Kong, a year after carrying the torch at the London Olympics.
The Guinness Book of Records did not accept his achievements due to the lack of a birth certificate.
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