Three men have been charged in China following the murder of two women with mental disabilities whose corpses were to be sold for use in “ghost weddings”.

One of the men posed as a matchmaker for the women but killed them with an injection of drugs before taking them hundreds of miles to face a grim burial.

“Ghost weddings” date back almost 3,000 years, and involve elderly bachelors being given "brides" to be buried with when they die.

The Telegraph visited a village in northern China earlier this year where 15 corpses had been stolen from their burial sites for use in the ancient ritual.

Families in rural China consider it bad luck for a single man to pass into the afterlife without a female companion at his side.

And despite efforts by Beijing to clamp down on superstitions, demand is said to be increasing for female corpses.

The three men, who police said were called Ma, Tang and An, sold one of the women’s corpses for 35,000 yuan (£3,980).