Tuesday, July 28, 2009

City plans to use catacombs for swine flu victims

A city council said Saturday it was considering using underground burial chambers, currently a tourist attraction, to store the corpses of swine flu victims if the pandemic worsens.

Exeter City Council said the empty 19th-century catacombs could become an emergency mortuary.

A council spokesman said the plan could be put into operation if the cemeteries and the crematorium could not keep up with funeral demands.

He said: "We have some empty catacombs in an old cemetery in the city. These are 19th century underground burial chambers which are normally a tourist attraction," he said.

"They can, however, be safely used for their original purpose and allow us to temporarily store bodies in the remote possibility that the need should arise."

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