Madrid  - The Spanish edition of the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia on Thursday erroneously said French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio had died of a heart attack on hearing that he had won the literature Nobel Prize.

"On hearing the news, because of the surprise, he suffered a heart attack and was taken in critical condition to the Charles de Gaulle hospital in Paris, where he died at 1.05 pm," the Wikipedia entry on Le Clezio said.

The joke was eliminated from Wikipedia two minutes after it had appeared, but its author reintroduced it, adding that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had expressed his condolences to Le Clezio's family.

The second text was also corrected immediately by Wikipedia. (dpa)