A woman was pronounced dead and sent to a hospital morgue in Brazil - despite being alive and breathing at the time.

In a scenario that could have come straight from a horror movie, Rosa Celestrino de Assis, who is in her 60s and suffering from pneumonia, was wrongly pronounced dead by an attending doctor.

According to Brazilian daily newspaper O Globo, Rosa was sent to the morgue and spent at least two hours in a body bag.

The blunder was only uncovered after her daughter came to see her and say goodbye.

"I went to give my mum one last hug, and I could feel that she was breathing. I screamed out - my mum is alive! And they all looked at me like I was crazy," Rosangela Celestrino told the paper.

"Not only did I have to go collect my mum from a cold storage drawer at the morgue, but when I got there, I find her still breathing."

Hospital officials at the unnamed institution said Rosa was pronounced dead at around 7.30pm on Friday after failing to show any vital signs.

They added that the mistake was uncovered at 10pm, at which point Rosa was immediately intubated and put back on life support.