Man killed by mother's falling coffin in Indonesia

A file picture of traditional Torajan stilt houses with its distinctive arched roofs.

TORAJA, Indonesia: A man in North Toraja in South Sulawesi, died after his mother's coffin fell on him and other pallbearers here on Friday (June 15).

The deceased, Samen Kondorura, was among dozens of male relatives who were carrying the coffin to a lakkean, a traditional wooden stilt house where dead bodies are stored during a funeral ceremony.

Video footage of the incident went viral on social media, which showed the crowd climbing a bamboo ladder to place the coffin inside the lakkean, when the ladder suddenly gave way and the pallbearers dropped the coffin and struck the crowd below.

Indonesian news portal TribunToraja.com quoted an eyewitness, Ardi, as saying that Samen sustained a severe injury to his head during the incident and died on the way to the hospital. – The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network