A 36-year-old woman locked in a grave in a cemetery in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil has been found alive after almost ten hours of untold torture.

The alarm was sounded on Tuesday by employees of the municipal cemetery of Visconde do Rio Branco, who saw traces of blood near the burial crypt. The cell was recently blocked with bricks and cement, the local police said in a statement.

“Police officers heard cries for help (from inside the ward), broke through the wall and pulled out a woman with head and hand injuries,” the report says.

The criminals buried the woman alive in this crypt, a structure that allows the dead to be buried in chambers above ground level. The police think she’s been locked in there since last night.

Authorities are still looking for two suspects, aged 20 and 22.

The investigating police inspector, Diego Candian Alves, said it was likely a case of “retaliation” by members of a gun and drug smuggling gang.

The woman told police that two masked men entered her home and abducted her after beating her husband. She remains in the hospital but her condition is “improving,” according to the G1 news site, citing medical sources.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.

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