woman found alive mortuary
© REXInvestigators are now trying to figure out how the mistake happened
A woman who was declared dead after a horror car crash was found alive inside a mortuary fridge hours later.

Forensic officers were stunned when they pulled the woman out of the fridge and discovered that was still breathing.

She had been wrongly pronounced dead by paramedics following the crash, which was thought to have killed three people, on a road near Johannesburg, South Africa.

The woman, who suffered severe head injuries, is now in hospital as investigators try to figure out how paramedics made the mistake.

Workers at the mortuary in Carletonville had loaded the crash victims into the fridges and were filling in forms when one went to check on the bodies, it was reported.

A source told Times Select: "When he pulled out the woman's body, he saw that she was breathing.
Carletonville south africa mortuary, woman found alive South African mortuary
Workers at a mortuary in Carletonville discovered the woman was still alive.
"Paramedics are trained to determine death, not us. You never expect to open a fridge and find someone there alive. Can you image if we had begun the autopsy and killed her?"

The woman, from Gauteng province, was rushed to Carletonville Hospital and then transferred to Leratong Hospital in Krugersdorp, where she continued to receive treatment.

The crash happened near Carletonville in the early hours of June 24 when a car went out of control and rolled.

The car was then hit by an ambulance responding to the incident, it was reported.