The shortest man in the world able to walk has died in Rome at the age of 21, according to Britain's Guinness World Records.

He Pingping stood two feet and five inches tall and weighed seven kilograms. He died after being admitted to hospital in the Italian capital with chest pains.

From a small village in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, He became quite a celebrity after he was crowned the world's shortest man by Guinness in 2008.

Despite his height, He became a chain smoker when he was seven years old and smoked at least one pack of cigarettes every day.

He weighed 1.1 pounds after birth, and stopped growing after he turned 18. As he was so small, his parents named him Pingping, meaning "wine bottle" in English.