A Sri Lankan man died while trying to set a record for the longest time spent buried alive, police said today.
Police said Janaka Basnayake, 24, buried himself over the weekend with the help of family and friends in a trench sealed with wood and soil in the town of Kantale, about 137 miles north of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo.
A local newspaper reported that the trench was 10 feet deep, the Associated Press reports.
Basnayake was buried at around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, but was unconscious when he was unearthed at 4 p.m. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Dr. D.G. Costa of the Kantale hospital said a post-mortem could not determine the cause of death and further medical investigations are being conducted, the AP reports.
Basnayake’s mother, L.D. Leelawathi, tells the Lankadeepa newspaper that her son had always enjoyed performing unusual acts and had been buried alive twice before, once for up to six hours.
The AP says it is unclear whether there is an official world record for the longest time buried alive.
