New York authorities were investigating a Brooklyn funeral home on Thursday after police found dozens of rotting bodies stored in trucks outside its entrance.
Since the start of the epidemic, New York, the most affected city in the world with more than 17,000 confirmed or probable coronavirus deaths, has had its share of morbid stories, with multiple testimonials from submerged funeral directors and trucks refrigerated visible across town to help manage body buildup.
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On Wednesday, dozens of bodies - up to 60, according to American media - were found in trucks in front of funeral directors Andrew Cleckley, a company located on a wide avenue in an outlying area of Brooklyn.
New York police were alerted in the middle of the day, bystanders sensing a foul dude escaping from the trucks, a spokesman said. It was while going to the scene that she realized the extent of the disaster. "We are investigating this funeral" , "we will not tolerate this kind of behavior" , said Thursday Howard Zucker, head of health services of the State of New York in charge of regulating these institutions. He noted that this company had not been the subject of any complaints in the past.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio called the situation "horrible" and "absolutely unacceptable" . "The funeral directors are private companies, they have an obligation to treat people with dignity (...) , I do not know how they could have allowed to do such a thing" , he added.
Police were stationed outside the company on Thursday, and workers in protective suits were standing near a body on a stretcher in front of a refrigerated truck.
Owner Andrew Cleckley told The New York Times that his establishment, like many others, had been overwhelmed by the influx of bodies, and had to place them in trucks, after filling his morgue with more than 100 corpses. "I ran out of space," he said. "We have corpses that we no longer know what to do with them" .