Man found dead two months after falling in sinkhole that opened up in his yard

Some locals doubted he had fallen in the gaping crevice that suddenly opened outside his back door in the town of Artyom in Primorsky region. For three weeks a local search failed to find him, and mine engineers brought in from thousands of miles away also failed initially to locate him.

On Tuesday his body was found in the tunnels of an old mine that had collapsed causing the sinkhole. Before locating him they had to strengthen the precarious underground passageways of the old mine.

He was located 18 metres below ground. Now wife Irina, 50, can hold a proper funeral for him.