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Police found the body of a missing man inside a giant papier-mâché dinosaur sculpture in Spain

May 26, 2021, 03:53 IST
Insider
The stegosaurus statue in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, near Barcelona, photographed on Monday.LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images
  • A missing man was found dead inside a dinosaur statue near Barcelona on Saturday, The Guardian reports.
  • Police say the 39-year-old dropped his phone in the statue and attempted to get it when he fell in.
  • Police continue to investigate the death but told The Guardian and BBC that no foul play is suspected.
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Police in Spain's Catalonia region on Saturday found the body of a missing man inside a papier-mâché dinosaur statue in a suburb outside of Barcelona, according to The Guardian reporter Sam Jones.

Authorities in Catalonia told The Guardian on Monday that the man, 39, is thought to have fallen into the stegosaurus statue while he was attempting to retrieve his cell phone, which he presumably dropped into the sculpture.

Police retrieved the body after two visitors to the statue - a father and son - reported a smell coming from the structure, BBC News reported on Monday. After looking through the cracks of the statue, the father saw a body and contacted authorities, according to BBC News.

Police were called where they found a man dead inside the leg of the statue, a spokesperson for regional police force Mossos d'Esquadra told The Guardian.

According to BBC News, the man had been reported as missing by his family.

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The Mossos d'Esquadra spokesperson told The Guardian that the death is not being treated as suspicious.

"It's an accidental death; there was no violence. This person got inside the statue's leg and got trapped," the Mossos d'Esquadra spokesperson said. "It looks as though he was trying to retrieve a mobile phone, which he'd dropped. It looks like he entered the statue head first and couldn't get out."

Firefighters were called to help cut open the statue and remove the body, the spokesperson told The Guardian.

The stegosaurus statue in the suburb of Santa Coloma de Gramenet has since been removed, according to BBC News. It was displayed as an advertisement for a shuttered movie theater, according to BBC News.

The dinosaur statue in Santa Coloma de Gramenet near Barcelona, Spain, on Monday. It has since been removed from the area.LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images

Officials told The Guardian that it's unclear how long the body had been inside the statue.

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"We're still waiting for the autopsy results, so we don't know how long he was in there, but it seems he was there for a couple of days," the Mossos d'Esquadra spokesperson told The Guardian.

Representatives for Mossos d'Esquadra did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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