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A 95-year-old Chinese woman terrified her village by climbing out of her coffin after being ‘dead’ for six days.

Li Xiufeng was found motionless and not breathing in bed by her neighbour more than a fortnight after tripping and suffering a head injury at her home in China's Guangxi Province

When he failed to wake her up, Chen Qingwang assumed the frail grandmother had passed away in her sleep, at her home in the village of Liulou, in Beiliu..

Recounting his daily visit to bring the elderly lady breakfast, Mr Qingwang, 60, said: “"She didn't get up, so I came up to wake her up.

"No matter how hard I pushed her and called her name, she had no reactions.

“I felt something was wrong, so I tried her breath, and she has gone, but her body is still not cold."

Because Mrs Xiufeng lived alone, Mr Qingwang and his son made preparations for her funeral, which included keeping the coffin in the house for several days for friends and relatives to pay their last respects.

The ‘dead’ woman was laid in her coffin on February 19, two days after she was discovered.

However, Mr Qingwang chose not to nail the coffin shut ahead of the planned burial on February 24.

The day before the funeral, Mr Qingwang arrived at his neighbour’s house to find the coffin empty and the corpse gone.

"We were so terrified, and immediately asked the neighbours to come for help," he said.

After searching for the missing body, the villagers were stunned to find Mrs Xiufeng sitting on a stool in her kitchen cooking.

She reportedly told villagers: “I slept for a long time. After waking up, I felt so hungry, and wanted to cook something to eat.

"I pushed the lid for a long time to climb out."

A county hospital reportedly believes Mrs Xiufeng suffered an artificial death, during which the person has no breath, but the body remains warm.

A doctor at the hospital was quoted as saying: "Thanks to the local tradition of parking the coffin in the house for several days, she could be saved.

But, despite ‘cheating’ death, the same local tradition has left Mrs Xiufeng with nothing as, according to tradition, after a person dies, all their belongings must be burnt.