Photo showing human corpse surrounded with ice angers Egyptians

A shocking photo showing a human corpse surrounded with ice chunks at a hospital’s morgue in Egypt has stirred anger among social media users.

Morgue staff at al-Husseiniya hospital, in the governorate of Sharqiya, were quoted saying the refrigerator at the mortuary has been out of order.

In order to keep it cool, the corpse was laid onto a table while huge chunks of ice were placed on and around it, to delay its decomposition.

The hospital’s head, Dr Mohammad Abdullah, quoted by Youm7 newspaper said the corpse was of a homeless elderly man who had lived in a nearby town for eight years.

Applying ice to cool the bodies was the only solution, the doctor claimed.

Abdullah explained that the Russian-type refrigerators at the morgue date back to 1963 when the hospital was first established. They can only refrigerate and cannot freeze the corpses, he said.

“This type of refrigerators cannot keep bodies for more than 24 hours,” he added.

The doctor said the corpses kept at the morgue are ones mainly requiring removal permission by the prosecution for autopsy, or awaiting identification.

Social media users expressed anger at the picture, saying it reflected almost no respect for the dead.