Video: man killed by his mother’s falling coffin

A man was crushed to death by his mother’s dropped coffin during a funeral procession, Indonesian police said yesterday.

Samen Kondorura, 40, was killed after pallbearers lost their footing while carrying the coffin up a bamboo ladder as part of the burial ritual on the island of Sulawesi.

The casket “fell as the group hoisted it onto a lakkian, an ornately carved tower where the deceased is placed before elaborate traditional funeral rites”, says The Guardian.

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“Suddenly the ladder shifted and collapsed, the coffin fell and hit the victim,” Julianto Sirait, chief commissioner of the Tana Toraja resort police, told Paris-based news agency AFP.

Kondorura’s body has been placed alongside that of his mother, Berta, added Sirait.

Video footage from the funeral, on Friday, “shows the ladder slip just as the casket enters the tower, sending the men tumbling several metres to the ground, where the victim is struck by the coffin”, says Metro.

Local news site Khaleej Times claimed that the ladder was not properly secured by local authorities.

Kondorura’s family “has decided not to sue officials”, reports The Sun.

Traditional Indonesian funerals “can last for days, with services involving music, dance and the sacrifice of water buffalo”, adds the newspaper.