Man dies inside dinosaur statue after trying to retrieve mobile phone

Police say there is no ‘evidence of criminality’

A man was found dead inside a dinosaur statue in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain. (Google Maps)

A 39-year-old man died inside a papier-mâché dinosaur statue in Spain after attempting to retrieve his mobile phone, the regional police have said.

The man’s body was discovered by the authorities after a father and son raised the alarm in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona, on Saturday.

The pair had noticed a bulge inside the figure, which had been used to promote an old cinema.

The Mossos d’Esquadra, the regional police force, said there was no “evidence of criminality” and that they were awaiting the results of the autopsy to find out when the man died.

A spokesperson for the force added that the body was found inside the leg of the statue, which firefighters had to cut open to remove the corpse.

“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,” they said.

The deceased had been reported missing by his family several hours before his body was found, according to the newspaper La Vanguardia.

The statue was subsequently removed from its place outside the Civic Building.