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In Bavaria, the police were called to an unusual operation

Photo:

Sarah Knorr/dpa

Banned or not?

This wasn't even clear to the police officers who were called to an apartment building in Ansbach, central Franconia.

A resident observed two men carrying a woman's body wrapped in a carpet down the stairs.

The officers determined on site that the dead woman was the mother of one of the men.

A death certificate and an inquiry at the registry office showed that the 82-year-old died of natural causes on Sunday.

The problem: Because there was no other means of transport, the two men wanted to take the body in the carpet to a funeral home's car.

The exact background to this action initially remained unclear.

According to their own information, the police are now investigating possible violations of burial law.

“We now have to check whether this is allowed or not,” said a police spokesman.

"It's not an everyday occurrence for us that a corpse is carried around in the carpet." The dead woman was ultimately picked up from the apartment building in a hearse.

hba/dpa