New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu stepped in to aid a choking this weekend, performing the Heimlich maneuver in front of a crowd of people gathered to watch an eating contest.

Video shows Sununu grabbing the man, Christian Moreno, and performing several abdominal compressions until the food – in this case, a lobster roll – was dislodged.

Moreno participated in the lobster roll eating contest at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival on September 8. He attempted to eat as many lobster rolls as possible in 10 minutes. After a couple of rolls, though, he began choking.

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Quick thinking: 'That was the governor?'

Sununu, who had been addressing the crowd earlier, noticed that Moreno was in distress, and quickly intervened, wrapping his arms around Moreno and performing the Heimlich maneuver.

“I started saying, ‘He’s choking, he’s choking,’ and I could tell people weren’t responding. So I just moved forward and immediately started to kind of give him the Heimlich,” Sununu told WMUR, adding, “It was crazy because it wasn’t so much the jumping in and doing it – I mean, that was wild in itself – but there was so much commotion.”

A paramedic soon took over for Sununu and freed the bits of lobster roll from Moreno’s throat, at which point he continued eating. Moreno eventually finished having consumed nine lobster rolls.

Having taken his glasses off before the contest, it wasn’t until later that Moreno realized it had been the New Hampshire Governor performing the Heimlich maneuver on him.

“My counter came up to me and, like, made a joke. And was like, ‘Oh, like, I bet nobody else can say that they’ve gotten a Heimlich from the governor before.’” Moreno told WMUR. “And I looked at him, and was just like, that was, that was the governor?”

Max Hauptman is a Trending Reporter for USA TODAY. He can be reached at MHauptman@gannett.com

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