Thousands of mourners in Peru were appalled after clumsy funeral workers dropped a casket carrying a popular former mayor, sending his body tumbling out of the coffin, in an error sure to land them on the graveyard shift.

Around 3,000 residents gathered this week to pay respects to Moises Tacuri Garcia, formerly the provincial mayor of Tarma in central Peru, but instead of a somber celebration of the official’s achievements, the funeral took a shocking detour.

As Garcia’s casket was lowered into his grave, workers lost control, sending one end of the coffin tumbling, and the former mayor’s body along with it, prompting screams and gasps from horrified onlookers assembled around the burial site.

Despite the grave slip-up on the part of the pallbearers, the funeral continued as normal afterward, according to local media.

Garcia died of a stroke on November 4 at the age of 59, and the popular mayor was honored with an official two-day mourning period, local reports said.

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