A woman in Russia is believed to have died after she being eaten alive by her own pigs.
The 56-year-old farmer suffered fatal injuries after collapsing during an epileptic fit while feeding her pigs.
Russian state media reported the hungry pigs bit into her face, ears, and shoulders as she lay on the floor. Her identity has not been made public.
The woman died of loss of blood at the farm, located in the Malopurginsky area of Udmurtia, part of Russia’s Volga Federal District in the west of the country.
According to the Moscow-based website Newstes, the woman was found by her husband on February 1, a full day after it is believed she died. He reportedly felt unwell and had gone to bed early on the day she was eaten by the pigs.
Authorities in Russia have launched an investigation into the episode, local law enforcement said in a press release.
The phenomenon of live humans being eaten by pigs is not unheard of. In 2015 a Romanian farmer died of blood loss after being bitten by the animals. His family told Britain’s Daily Star newspaper he may have suffered a heart attack while feeding the animals or he simply may have slipped before they moved in.
In 2014 a Chinese toddler was killed after he was partially eaten by pigs. The two-year-old crawled into a pig pen while playing in his back garden in China’s Jiangsu Province. The U.K.-based Daily Mail reported an aggressive sow mauled him to death while attempting to protect her piglets.
In 2012, The Associated Press reported Terry Vance Garner, 69, was eaten by his own pigs at his farm on the Oregon coast.