Commuters in Greater Manchester were left spooked on Thursday after the “freaky” discovery of a coffin at a bus stop.
The Manchester Evening News reports that the unnerving object greeted passengers as they disembarked on Stamford Street in Mossley, Tameside.
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council told HuffPost UK that they had received calls about the discarded coffin, but were yet to decide what would happen to it or whether officials would retrieve it.
The MEN said no one appeared to know where the coffin came from and reported that while viewing it, a woman from a nearby medical centre opened it.
Nothing was inside.
The newspaper interviewed forklift truck driver Bobby Wood, who spotted the coffin after arriving to catch the bus.
“I was in shock (when I saw it),” the 26-year-old said.
“It’s not every day you see a coffin at a bus stop.
“There was a woman sat there and she moved away when she realised what it was.
“It’s a bit freaky – I didn’t want to go near it.”
Wood suspected the coffin was dumped as “some sort of joke”.
A nearby funeral director told the newspaper the coffin was “not real”.
A member of the funeral director’s staff, who also viewed the casket, added: “I would go along with it being a prop that’s been dumped.”
Greater Manchester Police added to the mystery further, telling HuffPost the force received a call from a member of the public about the coffin, "but having checked CCTV there didn’t appear to be any sign” of it.