COIMBATORE: A 65-year-old DMK activist swooned and died while watching the news of death of party patriarch M Karunanidhi on television near Pollachi in the district.

Kanagaraj, an active party worker from a village in north Pollachi, was glued to TV since Monday, party sources said.

On hearing the leader’s demise, around 6.30 p.m. Kanagaraj swooned and died at the spot, they said.

Meanwhile, nearly 230 Government-run liquor outlets downed their shutters and majority of the buses proceeding to Kerala and Karnataka stopped plying.

Shops and other commercial establishments in the district downed shutters as a mark of respect to Karunanidhi, even as long queues were seen at all the petrol pumps across the district..

Party workers paid floral tributes to their leader’s photographs placed at various places.

In a statement, Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi General secretary E.R. Eswaran, condoling the death said that the death was a great loss to the Tamil language and also entire Tamil community.