Russian man who buried himself alive for good luck dies by mistake

A Russian man has died after persuading a friend to bury him alive for a night, hoping it would bring him "good luck". The victim dug a hole in a garden in the eastern city of Blagoveshchensk and climbed into an improvised coffin, with holes for air pipes, taking a mobile phone and a bottle of water with him.

His friend covered the coffin with earth and then left, after the buried man phoned to say he was fine. The next morning, he returned to find his friend dead, investigators said. The 35-year-old victim had believed that burying himself alive for a night would bring him luck the rest of his life.



"According to his friend, the man wanted to test his endurance and insistently asked his friend to help him spend the night buried," said Alexei Lubinsky, a senior aide to the region's chief investigator. "We know that the victim was a computer programmer and that he has a small child."

The coffin was covered with soil to a depth of about 20cm (eight inches), Mr Lubinsky said. He speculated that heavy rainfall overnight could have blocked the air supply to the man trapped inside.