grieving man is crushed to death by his own mother’s coffin during her funeral

A grieving man was killed when his mother’s coffin fell from a funeral tower and crushed him during a service on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, police said on Sunday.

Samen Kondorura, 40, died Friday when pallbearers lost their footing while carrying the coffin up a bamboo ladder in the Parinding valley in North Toraja district.

The casket fell as the group hoisted it on to a lakkian, an ornately carved tower where the deceased is placed before elaborate traditional funeral rites.

“As the mother’s coffin was being raised to the lakkian, suddenly the ladder shifted and collapsed, the coffin fell and hit the victim,” Julianto Sirait, chief commissioner of the Tana Toraja resort police, told AFP.

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Sirait said the accident happened because the ladder was not properly reinforced but the family has declined to press charges.

The body of Kondorura is now resting alongside his mother Berta, he added. When ethnic Torajans die, local residents hold elaborate funerals that can last for days and involve music, dance and the sacrifice of water buffalo.