A Sri Lankan man has died while trying to set a record for the longest time spent buried alive, police say.
Police said Janaka Basnayake, 24, buried himself over the weekend with the help of family and friends in a trench sealed with wood and soil in the town of Kantale, about 220km north of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. A local newspaper reported that the trench was 3m deep.
Basnayake was buried at around 9:30am on Saturday (local time). Police said that when he was brought to the surface at 4pm, he was unconscious and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Dr. D.G. Costa of the Kantale hospital said a post-mortem could not determine the cause of death and further medical investigations are being conducted.
Basnayake's mother, L.D. Leelawathi, said her son had enjoyed performing unusual acts since his childhood - a liking that grew after watching movies, the Lankadeepa newspaper reported.
It quoted her as saying that her son had been buried alive on two previous occasions - for two and a-half hours and six hours respectively.
It was unclear whether there is an official world record for the longest time buried alive.
Police said Basnayake was a member of the Civil Defense Force, a police unit that fought in the country's 25-year civil war.
