A South Korean man who played computer games for a whopping 50-hour stretch non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an internet café arccording to reports in a local paper.

The 28-year-old man had been playing games at a cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu and only left the spot over that time to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed police said.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said.

According to reports in a local paper after it interviewed former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe, the man, named only by his family name Lee, had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games.

After he failed to return home, his mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

He died a few minutes later.