A grieving son has claimed he was asked to take his dead mother’s body home with him as the air conditioning at his local hospital’s morgue was broken.

The incident allegedly took place at the Famagusta general hospital in Paralimni. The man was allegedly told his mother’s body would not fit in a freezer box due to its size, and that the morgue’s air conditioning was malfunctioning.

A complaint has now been launched with both the police and the health ministry.

Speaking on television to Alpha, health ministry spokesman Dimitris Constantinou confirmed the ministry had received a complaint and transferred it to the state health services (Okypy).

He added that as the case is now in the hands of both the ministry and the legal service, he could not give any more details.

Okypy had the previous day said it “categorically rejects” the allegations, and spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told the Cyprus Mail he will make no further comment on the matter.