Mayor pretends to be dead coronavirus body in coffin to dodge arrest after ‘breaking lockdown to booze with pals in Peru

THE mayor of a town in Peru pretended to have died from the coronavirus and hid in a coffin in order to avoid arrest for breaking lockdown rules, it's alleged.

Jaime Rolando Urbina Torres put on a facemask and lay down in the coffin when officers came to detain him during a boozy night with his pals, it's claimed.

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The mayor of the central town of Tantara was detained for violating a curfew and social distancing rules he was meant to be enforcing.

His friends are alleged to have hidden in drawers.

It’s unclear where the party took place or why there were open caskets close at hand.

The mayor has already faced criticism from some locals who accused him of being absent for much of the outbreak.

They say he has spent just eight days in the town since the start of the lockdown and has failed to put in place any local safety measures.

Video later emerged of him being quizzed by the police about his actions.

Tantara was placed into lockdown 66 days ago, along with the rest of Peru, by the central government.

The country has so far seen 104,020 cases, the world’s 12th highest in the Covid-19 pandemic, with 3,024 deaths.

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There are fears that its markets and those elsewhere in the region may have helped spread the killer bug.

In the capital Lima, four out of five merchants in the city's major fruit market recently tested positive for Covid-19 while spot tests at five other markets show at least half the workers had the disease.

Cops and the military are now carrying out testing at markets after president Martín Vizcarra refused to shut down the wholesalers.

The country’s healthcare system is struggling and in the capital patients took up 80 per cent of ICU beds.

Latin America is fast becoming the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic with authorities finding bodies in the streets as they struggle to enforce lockdown restrictions.

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Brazil remains the worst-hit country in Latin America and has the third largest number of infections in the world at more than 250,000.

More than 85 per cent of intensive care beds are full in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Officials in the region struggled to enforce lockdowns as the poor need to work to feed their families while the wealthy are used to flouting regulations.

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