A man in Qingdao, Shandong province used a vacuum cleaner to save his father who began choking on a fish ball during dinner on December 1.

The son explained he had resorted to using a vacuum after he was unable to dislodge the fish ball from the throat of his 64-year-old father with his fingers or a chopstick.

Desperate, short for time and unaware of the Heimlich maneuver, he cranked the vacuum at high blast and stuck the nozzle in his father's mouth - which actually worked.

"We were too careless. He usually eats by himself, but he also becoming absent minded in his old age," said the son.

A doctor at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, where the father was treated, warned against such risky rescues.