Almost 1,000 coffins have now been left unburied in a Palermo cemetery, the Giornale di Siclia newspaper reported Tuesday.
The caskets have been piling up since the autumn of 2019, it said.
Some of the coffins have burst in the recent torrid heat, said Rotoli Cemetery Director Leonardo Cristofaro.
"Due to the lack of graves to bury in, as well as the elevated temperatures, many caskets have started to percolate dangerously," he said.
"The situation now imposes the immediate burial or the very urgent purchase, which can no longer be put off, of a suitable number of zinc over-coffins destined to contain them.
"But we are aware that without graves or zinc overcoffins the situation can only further deteriorate, becoming a grave health danger".
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