Outraged residents have accused the council of a Brazilian city of tarmacking a dead dog into a pothole, as apparently seen in this shocking image.

The photo was snapped in the municipality of Itumbiara (population 105,809), in the west-central Brazilian state of Goias, on Monday, 21st March.

Savoury snack maker Frederico Antonio Dias Barbosa, 21, said the dog was already dead and that the tarmac was filled around it into the pothole, leaving part of the animal exposed.

He was quoted as saying: “This is a sin. Everyone in town is disgusted by this. They saw that the dog was already dead inside the hole, they poured the tarmac over it and part of the dog was left sticking out of the tarmac. It’s disgusting.”

He said that it was a friend who had come across the shocking scene on Dr Celso Maeda Avenue, in the neighbourhood of Santa Rita, and told him about it.

He said: “I live on the street, I went there and saw it too. Yesterday they were doing an operation to fill holes in the area. The famous ‘stopgap’.”

However, the City Hall has denied that any of its employees tarmacked the dead dog in the pothole, claiming that “someone, in bad faith, dug up the hole and dumped the animal inside, covering it with tarmac”.

The City Hall also said that the steamroller used to smooth the newly laid road surface weighs almost 10 tonnes and that “had the hole been covered with the animal inside, nothing would be left of it”.

A team from the City Hall removed the remains of the dog yesterday (Tuesday, 22nd March). The police are reported to be investigating the incident.