A passer-by discovers the body of a missing man in a dinosaur statue in Barcelona. Spanish police are investigating his death.
The firefighters of the Generalitat and the Mossos d’Esquadra were alerted on Saturday. A father and his son noticed a smell emanating from the papier-mâché figure in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona.
The father then saw the corpse through a crack in the Stegosaurus’ hollow leg.
No foul play suspected
Police said the man had been reported missing by his family.
“It’s an accidental death; there was no violence. This person got inside the statue’s leg and got trapped,” the Mossos d’Esquadra spokesperson said.
They have not confirmed how he came to be inside the dinosaur. However, one of the theories is he tried to retrieve a mobile phone he’d dropped in there, fell in and was trapped. The fact his body was upside-down within the dinosaur’s leg supports this theory.
The 39-year old man’s body had to be cut free from the statue and, sources say, a crane required due to the victim’s height and weight, according to El País.
Until the results of the autopsy confirm how he died, it is all speculation.
Dinosaur removed
The statue has now been removed from outside the city’s Cubic Building, where it was advertising an old cinema.
