As scalding hot vapour began to pass through the barrel, he was told to fetch a needle needed for the exorcism. "When I returned the screaming had begun," Mr Yan told the Sunday Telegraph.

As his wife cried out in agony inside the barrel, he remonstrated with the two witch doctors. "They said the ritual must be concluded, and that the screams from my wife was the sound of demons leaving her body,” he said.

He stood and watched until his wife's cries became too much to bear. But after pulling her blackened body from the barrel and cradling her in his arms, he knew it was too late. "I looked at her face, and it was purple. She told me she wouldn't make it," said Mr Yan, 45. The pair of witch doctors then slipped away and ran to the green mountains surrounding the family home.