Crematoriums are, by nature, hot places. But few are currently hotter than a government-run funeral parlour in Liaoning province, where relatives of the deceased are literally burning with anger and rioting.
The scandal at the Qinghe district funeral home broke when the family of Li Eshan was given her remains, only to discover her body – uncremated – in another room. An employee then confessed that he’d been giving relatives the wrong remains since 2007 (“to save time”, the Southern Metropolis News reports).
That was a pretty shocking admission in a country where ancestor worship remains a big deal. 2,800 families discovered they’d been worshipping an urn with the ashes of a total stranger. In the resulting riot they managed to hospitalise the crematorium’s director.
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