World's oldest person dies at 115

His great-niece, Dolores Martinez, said he died like a little angel, and that his great great-nephew and a carer were with him at the time.

Mr Mercado del Toro had been having difficult breathing recently but was alert before his death.

He became the world's oldest person last month when 116-year-old Elizabeth Bolden died in Tennessee.

Mr Mercado del Toro had been married three times but never had children.

He was born in Puerto Rico when it was still a Spanish colony, was drafted into the US Army in 1918 but did not serve because World War I ended while he was still in training.

Later he worked in the island's sugar cane fields.

A woman in Connecticut, Emma Faust Tillman, who is 114, is now believed to be the oldest living person.