Spain: Missing man's body found 'inside dinosaur statue,' police calls it accidental death

Police in Catalonia are investigating the death of a 39-year-old man who was first reported missing until his body was found inside a large dinosaur statue as they tried to locate his mobile phone. As per The Guardian report, the Spanish officers were called to the statue of papier-mache stegosaurus in the Barcelona suburb of Santa Coloma de Gramenet after a man and his son noticed something inside the statue on Saturday afternoon. Following the alert by the father-son duo, the spokesperson for the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra reportedly said that the death of the man was ‘accidental’ and was not being treated as suspicious.

As per the report, she said, “We found the body of a man inside the leg of this dinosaur statue. It’s an accidental death; there was no violence. This person got inside the statue’s leg and got trapped. It looks as though he was trying to retrieve a mobile phone, which he’d dropped. It looks like he entered the statue head first and couldn’t get out.”

The spokesperson said that the officers had to call the firefighters to help cut into the statue so that the body of the man could be retrieved. The Mossos d’Esquadra also said that the authorities are waiting for the autopsy results of the man and hence, they do not know yet how long the 39-year-old was trapped inside the statue. However, she added, “it seems he was there for a couple of days.” Several local media reports said that the dead man was registered missing by his family a few hours before his body was discovered. 

The decorative statue removed

As per local media reports, the decorative statue of the dinosaur has been removed from its designated place outside the city’s Cubis Building. It was originally placed in that position for the advertisement of an old cinema. Other reports have also stated that the man, who has not been named, was trying to retrieve a mobile phone he had dropped inside the statue. 

However, he then failed inside the huge decorative figure. As a result, he was reportedly left trapped upside down and was unable to call for help. As of now, police has not confirmed how the 39-year-old man ended up inside the statue and are waiting for the results of the autopsy.

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