A mayor has been charged with murder after taking away the only oxygen cylinder from his town's health service so he could pump BEER at a private party, it was reported today.

Photos posted online of Brazilian Jose Claudio Pol's New Year's Eve party show him and his family using the compressed oxygen cylinder in order to dispense beer from a keg.

But on the same night a patient who needed oxygen was found to have died because the cylinder had gone missing.

Incriminating pictures from Jose Cludio Pol's party show the cylinder being used as a beer keg

Pol, 58, who was mayor of Luiziana, southern Brazil, was suspended from his post after the photos emerged, but will now face trial after a technical report showed that his actions caused the death of the patient.

According to prosecutors, Pol ordered a council worker to remove the portable oxygen cylinder from the town's health centre and bring it to his home, where family members had gathered to welcome in the New Year with a barrel of beer.

Several hours later, while the oxygen cylinder was being used to pump beer, a woman was brought into the health centre with a suspected heart attack.

Pol, 58, who was mayor of Luiziana, southern Brazil, has been charged with murder after the patient's death

She was put on piped oxygen, but when her health deteriorated medics decided to transfer her to hospital in a neighbouring town 20 miles away, according to the report.

With no portable oxygen cylinder, the woman was transported without oxygen but had another heart attack before arriving in the hospital and died the next day on January 3, 2013.

Prosecutors yesterday charged Pol with manslaughter and misappropriation of public assets for personal use.

Another two people who helped the mayor remove the equipment from the health centre and transport it to the mayor's home were also charged with the same crimes.

Prosecutor Andre del Grossi Assumpcao explained: 'As a result of the removal of emergency equipment for simple recreational use by the accused, they weakened public emergency services and deprived this patient of oxygen, which has been proved to have caused detriment to her health and later her death.'