Zimbabwe: Mourners Shocked as Dead Man Wakes up at Own Funeral

A man in Zimbabwe stunned mourners when he woke up at his own funeral - just as the last rites were about to be performed.

Mourners at the funeral of 34-year-old Brighton Dama Zanthe screamed in shock when he suddenly sat up in his coffin, a report in the Telegraph said.

The incident happened in Zanthe's home in the town of Gweru.

"I was the first to notice Mr. Zanthe's moving legs as I was in the queue to view his body. At first I could not believe my eyes but later realised that there was indeed some movements on the body as other mourners retreated in disbelief," Lot Gaka, a mourner who used to be Zanthe's boss, told The Herald.

Zanthe was "resurrected" just in time, as his body was scheduled to be sent to a funeral parlour later that day. Following the incident, Zanthe was rushed to the hospital where he was kept on life support for two days before being released, Huffington Post reported.

This is not the first time someone, understood to be dead, has sprung back to life.

Earlier this year a woman, reportedly a prostitute, collapsed and died during sex, only to wake up after she was placed into a coffin.

In another case, in June 2012, a woman from Zimbabwe was rushed to the hospital after she stabbed herself and was allegedly declared dead, the Chronicle reports. However the woman woke up soon afterwards.

Finally, in May 2012, Hamdi Hafez al-Nubi, a 28-year-old waiter in Southern Egypt who was declared dead by hospital officials woke up while his family was mourning.

Nubi had suffered a heart attack and according to Islamic tradition, his grieving relatives had washed his body and prepared for his burial when a doctor who had come to sign his death certificate found his body was moving. It was later confirmed that he was still alive.