Pensioner's mummified body found in Sicily

Acate (Italy), March 8 (IANS/AKI) Police discovered the mummified corpse of a 74-year-old man in the Sicilian town of Acate on Tuesday after his relatives raised the alarm.

Police broke into the man's apartment in Arcate after they received a phone-call from his relatives in northern Italy, who said they had not been able to reach him by phone "for several weeks".

The pensioner died of natural causes about three months ago, according to a coroner's report. His body has been handed over to relatives for burial.

In May last year, bailiffs found the mummified corpse of a Sardinian pensioner believed to have died in 2008 when they entered his apartment in the northwestern port city of Genoa.

The man's nieces told investigators they had tried to contact him several times over the previous seven years and one of them had even rung on the bell of his apartment but there was no reply.

--IANS/AKI

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