Taiwan man rescued after four days trapped in a grave

[InformationSociety]

Taiwan man rescued after four days trapped in a grave

Yang Shu-huang & Staff Reporter
2014-03-15

The man is lifted out of the grave by firefighters, March 13. (Photo/Nantou County Fire Department)

A man in central Taiwan has survived the terrifying ordeal of being trapped in a disinterred grave in a public cemetery for four days before he was rescued on March 13. Police are investigating how the man, in his 50s and surnamed Chien, came to be trapped in the grave with a heavy wooden lid on top.

The incident occurred in the township of Chaotun in central Taiwan's Nantou county. Chien has given conflicting accounts of his confinement, saying first that "friends" placed him into the empty grave in Pifeng public cemetery and put the lid in place. He later said that he had stumbled into the grave while drunk, which would not explain how he became trapped under the lid.

The grave in which Chien was found had been opened in order for the remains of the deceased inside to be exhumed for ceremonial cleaning, a practice found among some Chinese communities in which interred bones are dug up to be cleaned or sometimes burned before being reburied in an urn.

Around noon on March 13, a couple went to the cemetery to tend to a grave when they heard a faint call for help from a coffin a few meters away. In shock, they went quickly to the local police station to report the case.

Police and firefighters rushed to the scene and four rescuers lifted the heavy lid to find the man inside, wearing a red peaked cap and wet and m&d-stained clothes. He was sent to hospital where doctors declared him in stable condition, though with a bruised waist and back.

Chien said he was terrified on wakening from drunken sleep to find himself in pitch darkness. When he reached out and touched wood he realized that he might be confined in a coffin. He cried for help and tried to lift the lid with his hands and knees but was unable to do so. He experienced dehydration and was also bitten by insects. He was able to use a plastic bag in his pocket to catch his urine, which he drank.

For four days Chien lay inside the grave, which he described as warm, unable to turn his body. By day he heard cars pass by in the distance and the nights were totally silent. At times he despaired and believed he would die before he was discovered. He recovered some hope after a storm brought rainwater into his coffin through a gap between the lid and the side of the grave, enabling him to quench his thirst. On March 13, he heard human voices and cried for help as loudly as he could. He knew he would be saved when he heard the sound of footsteps and a dog barking, he said.