Story By: Anna Casap, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

This widow was stunned to discover an unknown corpse wearing her dead husband’s clothes during a bungled funeral service in Russia.

The widow, who was married to her husband Ernst Galimov for 18 years before he died of a long-term illness aged 50, was stunned when she saw the body of a stranger in the place of her beloved partner at the cemetery in the city of Chelyabinsk in southern Russia.

According to local media, Galimov suffered from long-term kidney problems and even spent the final seven years of his life on a dialysis machine.

His widow Svetlana Galimova explained: “I was organising the funeral alone because my husband’s parents are old and they depended on me.

“I could never imagine that such a monstrous mistake would happen to me.”

She continued: “We arrive at the funeral and I looked at his clothes, the coffin, but inside was a completely different person!”

Galimova said that she cut her husband’s hair short before his death and that he was very thin at the time. However, inside the coffin was a chubby body with grey curly hair.

The widow complained to the funeral staff and a worker went to check on the tags to confirm whether the bodies had been mixed up.

According to local media, employees found Galimov’s body and hastily changed the clothes to continue with the service.

According to the widow, the cemetery phoned her the next day to apologise while a staff member also said sorry on social media, admitting they had mixed up the two bodies.

It is unclear whether the widow is considering legal action against the funeral company.

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