Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

Newsflash/@wandayineth.mosqueragamboa

This is the moment cops warn residents about the risk of coronavirus by dancing in the streets with a coffin echoing a popular African pallbearers’ dance which went viral on social media.

The clip was recorded in the city of Quibdo in the Choco Department in north-eastern Colombia when four cops took to the streets with an empty coffin to warn residents about COVID-19.

The footage shows the policemen carrying a coffin dancing on a lorry in a bid to amuse residents and warn them about the risk of COVID-19

The dance is accompanied with a message sent loud through speakers that says: “We recommend for your health and that of your family, to stay at home. National Police, we are one, we are everyone.”

Another two officers can be seen washing their hands to show residents the precautions they have to take to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Reports said that the lorry paraded through the city streets accompanied by a police patrol vehicle in what has been described by local media as an imitation of the African group ‘Dancing Pallbearers’ lead by Ghanaian Benjamin Aidoo, which became famous when the BBC recorded them in 2015 performing flamboyant coffin-carrying dances at a funeral.

The policemen are seen dancing to the song ‘Astronomia’ by Vicetone and Tony Igy, the same track which has reportedly inspired several memes based on the ‘Dancing Pallbearers’ performance in the BBC news report.

According to the BBC, families in Ghana send their loved ones off in style and the video has been widely shared on social media.

According to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University, there have been 3,105 confirmed cases of COVID and 131 deaths.

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