SHANGHAI, July 30 -- AN Australian tourist fainted in Beijing after a beggar followed him several hundred meters.

The man and his two friends were surrounded by several beggars after he gave some money to one beggar outside a shopping center on Saturday evening.

"We sped up to get rid of them, but one female beggar just wouldn't let us go," one of the man's friends told Beijing Times.

The beggar, in her 30s, pulled at the man's arm and asked him to give her "some pocket money," according to the report

The three stopped a cab to escape. When the cab stopped in front of them, the man fainted. He was lying on the ground, vomiting white spittle and his hands and legs were twitching.

The Aussie was soon sent to a nearby hospital and police got involved, the report said.

He likely suffered heatstroke and was in stable condition, said the report.

"The weather in Beijing is not pleasant," one of the man's friends told Beijing Times. "We've been here for five days and it's always so hot."

Yesterday's high in the capital was 31 degrees Celsius.

"That foreigner looked so angry with the beggar, and his hands were waving in the air," Yao Jianguo, the cab driver, told the newspaper.

Yao said he saw the beggar flee before police arrived.