NEW DELHI, India (KRON) – A man has died in India after a fight with his rooster as the two were on their way to a cockfight.

50-year-old Saripalli Chanavenkateshwaram Rao was hit in the neck with a blade tied to the rooster’s claw on Jan. 15, CNN reports.

Officials said the man was a regular at local cockfights and was on his way to enter the rooster in a competition when it tried to get away and break free.

A police spokesperson told CNN the father of three was taken to the hospital where he later died from a stroke.

Rao lived in a village in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state.

Cockfighting has been illegal in India since 1960, but continues to cause problems around the country.

LATEST HEADLINES: