Man appears after friends attend his funeral

When Frank Hughes' former colleagues read that their 80-year-old friend had passed away, they turned out to his funeral to pay their last respects.

But hours after bidding him farewell, they spotted Mr Hughes walking around town - looking very much alive.

By bizarre coincidence, the former bus driver's friends had attended the funeral of a namesake of the same age, living in the same town.

When a friend saw the newspaper notice announcing the death, he rang Mr Hughes's old coach firm Abbotts, of Leeming, North Yorkshire, to query the address given in the notice. He was told that as far as the company knew it was the right address, sparking the confusion.

Several former colleagues travelled to the crematorium for the service. They hugged the pensioner when they later saw him walking round town, and congratulated him on being alive.

Mr Hughes said: "I had seen the notice in the paper myself and eventually I started to twig what was happening. I phoned Abbotts and the traffic manager answered. I told him it was Frank and that I was just phoning to say I was very much alive and kicking.

"He said 'Well, whose funeral have we all just been to then?' "

A relative of the other Frank Hughes, whose funeral did take place, said: "It's a one in a million chance. My dad was in the Merchant Navy and it was a big turn-out, but there were some people outside who we didn't know."

- THE INDEPENDENT