A Chinese woman who was certified as the tallest in the world has died, an official from her hometown said Wednesday.

Yao Defen, of eastern China's Anhui province, was listed as the world's tallest woman by Guinness World Records in 2010, when she stood 2.33 metres (seven foot eight inches) high, according to the record compiler's website.

"Yao Defen died in the middle of last month," a spokesman for the government of Shucha township, where Yao lived, told AFP by telephone.

The official, who refused to give his name, said that he was not certain of the cause of her death.

Yao, recorded as the third tallest woman who ever lived, was 40 when she died. Her gigantism was reportedly due to a tumour in her pituitary gland.

An Anhui newspaper reported that she died on November 13, having reached a height of 2.36 metres, adding that she was already more than two metres tall when she was 15.