A 65-year-old Thai woman, who was believed to be dead, shocked temple staff when she began moving and knocking on her coffin after being brought in for cremation in Thailand.
Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple within the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok, shared a video on its Facebook page showing a girl lying in a white coffin behind a pickup truck, barely moving her arms and head, leaving staff stunned.
Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press on Monday that the supposedly deceased woman’s brother drove her from the province of Phitsanulok to be cremated.
Soodthoop said they heard a faint knock coming from the coffin.
“I used to be a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everybody was startled,” he said. “I saw her opening her eyes barely and knocking on the side of the coffin. She will need to have been knocking for quite a while.”
Soodthoop said the girl’s brother placed her in a coffin and made the 500-kilometre journey to a hospital in Bangkok, where the girl had reportedly expressed a want to donate her organs.
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The brother said his sister had been bedridden for about two years when her health deteriorated and she or he became unresponsive. He also claimed his sister appeared to have stopped respiratory two days earlier, in line with Soodthoop.
The hospital refused to simply accept the girl without an official death certificate, Soodthoop said.
Soodthoop’s temple provides free cremation service, which he believes is why the person got here to them on Sunday. He was refused because of the missing death certificate.
While the temple manager was explaining to the brother tips on how to get a death certificate, they heard the knocking from contained in the coffin. Staff opened the coffin and assessed the girl before sending her to a close-by hospital.
Soodthoop said the temple would cover the girl’s medical expenses. She stays alive in hospital.
Similar instances have occurred prior to now, where individuals were later found alive after being placed in a coffin or buried in the bottom.
Police in northern China charged a person with attempted murder in May 2020 after he allegedly buried his mother in an abandoned grave, where she was found traumatized but alive after three days covered by loose dirt.
The person’s wife told police her husband carried his mother away in a wheelbarrow on May 2. When she didn’t return three days later, police were informed. The person was placed in detention in Shaanxi province’s Jingbian county.
Rescuers said despite the girl’s ordeal, she was faintly calling for help as she was freed, in line with a police statement.
— With files from The Associated Press
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