A man who tried to fake his death to escape debt collectors is being investigated by police after apparently coming back to life in his coffin.

Footage of the amazing resurrection shows the 40-year-old man – identified only by the initials U.S. -lying in an open casket with people trying to loosen his clothing.

One woman holds the palm of her hand over his mouth as if she is trying to check his breathing.

Then as the scene changes, the same man is seen apparently moving around on a hospital trolley.

The drama began when the man and his wife – also not named – hired an ambulance to pick up a casket and drive both of them to their home in South Jakarta.

The couple reportedly own a property in Rancabungur District, Bogor Regency, Indonesia and told the driver they were going to pick up the body of a dead family member.

When they made a stop on the way there, only the woman came back to the ambulance and told the driver her husband had left.

But – report local media – he had sneaked unnoticed into the coffin in the back.

It appears that the man may have taken some drugs to render him unconscious and give the impression that he was dead but they don’t seem to have knocked him out fully.

Attempts to have him declared dead to get a death certificate went wrong when they got to Bogor General Hospital and it was obvious he was very much alive.

Bogor Police Chief Iman Imanuddin confirmed that the ambulance driver had told them the wife had revealed they had huge debts with debt collectors turning up at their door.

The hospital has refused to comment on the matter other than saying that they treated the man and when he left it was under his own steam.