The body of a missing man has been found inside a dinosaur statue in Barcelona, Spain.
The 39-year-old man's body was discovered in a papier-mâché stegosaurus statue outside the Cubic Building in Santa Coloma de Gramenet after police said a father and son had noticed a smell coming from it, the BBC reported.
The father saw the body through a crack in the stegosaurus' hollow leg and alerted the authorities.
A spokesperson for the regional police force told the Guardian they believe it was an accidental death and no violence was suspected. The man had been reported missing just hours before his body was discovered.
🔴 Troben el cos sense vida d'un home dins d'un dinosaure decoratiu dels antics cinemes del Cubics de #SantaColoma de #Gramenet. Un nen i el seu pare, que juguen sovint a la zona, han trobat el cadàver. El pare ha avisat immediatament la policia, que investiga la causa de la mort pic.twitter.com/EIAc3P4Lr1
— El Mirall.net (@elmirallnet) May 22, 2021
According to a local media report, the man was reportedly trying to retrieve his cellphone that dropped inside the statue when he fell inside and was trapped upside down.
Firefighters pried open the dinosaur leg to retrieve the body after three teams were called to the scene.
Police are awaiting the results from his autopsy to determine how he died, and the statue has since been removed.
A spokesperson for the Mossos d’Esquadra, the local police, said: “It’s an accidental death; there was no violence. It looks as though he was trying to retrieve a mobile phone, which he’d dropped.”
The statue, which was used to promote an old cinema, has been removed from its original location.
IOL