I got third degree burns - by eating a fruit

A tourist was left with third-degree burns on his face after biting into an exotic fruit at a market in Mexico.

Thomas Harold Watson, 28, says he experienced a burning feeling like "fire" going across his mouth immediately after biting into the wrong part of the fruit.

He had unwittingly bitten into the outer shell of a cashew nut – two layers of hard shell which contain cardol and anacardic acid - which can cause vicious burns.

Cashew nuts grow on cashew trees, with the nut encased in a hard shell, attached to an edible fruit known as cashew apple.