Alex Salmond “fell ill and died at the scene” of a suspected massive heart attack, police said.
Delegates said “time stood still” when Scotland’s former chief minister fell backwards in his chair and was caught by a speaker at a diplomatic conference in North Macedonia at around 3.30pm on Saturday.
Efforts were made to resuscitate Mr Salmond, 69, with CPR, but when paramedics arrived they concluded there was nothing that could be done to save him.
Friends and family in Scotland were informed of his death by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a former SNP MP and close friend of Mr Salmond, who accompanied him to the event in Ohrid.
Sources close to Mr Salmond said there was a race to inform his wife Moira, 87, of his death before the news was made public.
Local police confirmed Mr Salmond died instantly, according to a statement by North Macedonia’s interior ministry. Prosecutors ordered an autopsy before the cause of death was yet officially confirmed.
North Macedonian media also reported that they understood he died of a major heart attack, while Mr Salmond’s friends said they believed he had suffered a “major heart attack”.
Chris McEleny, general secretary of Mr Salmond’s Alba Party, arrived in Macedonia on Sunday to help repatriate the body, which the RAF hopes will be returned to his country.
Mr Salmond appeared in a panel discussion at the conference on Friday, where he appeared in good spirits. Mark Donfried, one of the conference organisers, said delegates were left in shock over his death.
“Time literally stood still,” he said. “He was suddenly sitting across from her at lunch time. [from me]. She collapsed, was sitting, and fell into the arms of one of the other speakers.
“I immediately went to the front desk to ask for an ambulance, and when I came back the man was on the ground and trying CPR. The good news is that he didn’t suffer. I don’t think he felt any pain.”
In his last public speech, the day before his death, Mr Salmond accused the EU of secretly conspiring with the UK Government against Scottish independence.
He described former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso as someone who was “of no use to Scotland” ahead of the 2014 referendum.
Before the vote, Mr Barroso warned that it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for an independent Scotland to join the EU, dealing a major blow to Mr Salmond’s Yes campaign.
Mr Salmond also suggested that the alleged collusion between the UK and the EU against his campaign had backfired, indirectly leading to the Brexit vote less than two years later.
“It is a reasonable assumption that if Scotland had voted for independence, two years later the UK would not have voted to leave the European Union,” he told delegates. “The interesting thing is that although Scotland missed an opportunity, England’s numbers went down.
“The European Union of that time, especially President Barroso, did not help Scotland at all. Actually, [he] He was secretly merging with the British Government.
“As a result, the UK, one of the biggest players in the European Union, left the EU after 18 months. “So in many ways this was a bad outcome for Europe as a whole.”
Mr Salmond had previously joked with the international public about the Scots’ reputation for frugality, warning them not to buy anyone lunch: “After all, I’m Scottish, we don’t do that sort of thing.”
Current First Minister John Swinney said Mr Salmond had inspired a generation to believe in independence and had “left a fundamental footprint in Scottish politics”.
Following a series of sexual harassment allegations, Mr Salmond fell out with his former protégé Nicola Sturgeon and left the SNP in 2018.
Although she “cannot pretend” these events did not happen, she said Mr Salmond would be remembered for his achievements and was shocked and saddened to learn of his death.
But Mr Salmond died believing some of his former allies in the SNP had conspired to have him jailed, and his supporters vowed to continue fighting to clear his name.
He was acquitted of a series of sexual misconduct charges at a hearing in 2020 and commissioned a Civil Service investigation into the allegations, which was ruled unlawful and “tainted by clear bias”.
Former SNP MP and KC Joanna Cherry claimed Mr Salmond was “stabbed in the back” by former friends before his death but that unsolved cases will restore his reputation.
Ms Cherry told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “We are innocent until proven guilty in this country and as a lawyer I am appalled that the jury verdict was not respected on the charges against Alex.”
“I think it is a terrible tragedy that Alex died before he was fully exonerated, but I believe time will vindicate his name.”
In his last public statement, published X hours before his death, Mr Salmond had lashed out at Mr Swinney for attending Sir Keir Starmer’s Nations and Regions Council on Friday.
He claimed the body amounted to a “territorial status” for the “nation of Scotland” and that Mr Swinney should boycott it. His final comment was: “Scotland is a country, not a county.”