Man eats at same table as brother's dead body for a month

Police in the northern German city of Rostock said that a man had been eating meals alongside the dead body of his brother which he had been propped up at the kitchen table for a month.

The 49-year-old man called police to report on the death of his brother on Thursday, according to a police report.

When police arrived at the shared apartment they found the dead body of the man's 45-year-old brother propped up in a chair in the kitchen.

A doctor subsequently found that the man had been dead since at least 31 October, having passed away in late October from natural causes.

The two had reportedly lived together for 20 years, and the 49-year-old had reportedly found it difficult to accept his brother's death.

"Apparently in order to process his grief, he actually lived for a month with the corpse in the same apartment," police wrote in the report.

According to news site Shz.de the man had eaten meals at the same table as his brother's body, and only called police when the smell of the decomposing corpse became too bad.

"He said goodbye to his dead brother in his own way - for over a month," a police spokesperson told Shz.de.