A MAN collapsed and died while having a meal at a Teignmouth harbourside restaurant, despite desperate efforts to revive him.

The community around the back beach and harbour area has been praised for attempts to save the 58-year-old casualty, named locally as Richard Clare, from the Newton Abbot area.

It is understood Mr Clare was with his wife Viv, head teacher at Abbotskerswell Primary School, when he collapsed at the Crab Shack restaurant on Saturday afternoon.