A 70-year-old grandmother was saved from being cremated alive when her husband noticed she was still breathing, the family has claimed.
Phinij Sopajorn had been taken to a local temple in Thailand for a Buddhist funeral and was kept in a cold coffin for three days.
When the casket was unloaded her husband, Thawin Sopajorn, 73, began washing her face with a damp flannel – a traditional funeral custom.
Just before Mrs Sopajorn’s body was about to be loaded into the incinerator, Mr Sopajorn says he noticed that she was gently breathing and that her eyelids were flickering.
Phinij Sopajorn, 70, (pictured lying down) was kept in a coffin for three days before being saved from being cremated alive when her husband noticed she was still breathing
He immediately called for help and paramedics arrived and performed CPR before declaring that Mrs Sopajorn was still alive.
The family took her body home where they laid it out next to a warm fan and put hot water bottles on her chest.
Mr Sopajorn said that he had suspected his wife was still alive because her body had not stiffened.
He said: ‘After she stopped breathing on Sunday we put her into the coffin and I thought it was strange that her body was not stiff. I bathed her and her body still moved.