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| - Italian police said Thursday they had discovered human remains in a shed and leaky coffins during coronavirus inspections of hospitals, cemeteries and funeral homes. During 375 raids across the country, officers partially closed down a morgue and brought criminal charges against 23 people, fining another 78. Three men who ran a cemetery in the northwestern Turin province were accused of desecrating a corpse after exhumed human remains dating back to 1992 were found in a tool shed. At another cemetery in Gela, Sicily, the Carabinieri police found 45 coffins amassed in a morgue, autopsy room and chapel, with their burial more than a month late. In Cisterna di Latina, a town south of Rome, they ordered the immediate closure of autopsy facilities at the local cemetery, due to serious hygiene problems. In Pescara, in the central Abruzzo region, police found blood-stained floors and leaky coffins in the morgue run by the health authority. In other facilities, officers found breaches of pandemic prevention rules, including no sanification of premises and no isolation of Covid-infected bodies. Italy is one of the countries that has been worst-hit by the coronavirus, with almost 104,000 deaths since the pandemic started 13 months ago. aa/ar/bp
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