In the Spanish town of Barcelona, a 39-year-old man died in dramatic circumstances after being stuck inside the leg of a massive dinosaur statue. According to investigators, it was an unfortunate accident, not a crime.
A tragic accident in the shadow of a dinosaur
The incident occurred in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a satellite town located right next doorBarcelonawhere for years there was a large statue of stegosaurus with paper-mâché. The sculpture originally served as an ad of former cinema, but over time it became simply a distinctive feature of the urban landscape.
A 39-year-old man's body was found inside one of the dinosaur's hind legs after a father and his child smelled a disturbing smell and looked through the gap in the structure. Called to the scene, firefighters had to cut open the statue leg to get a man trapped.
How a 39-year-old got stuck in a dinosaur's leg
Investigators from the Catalan police believe a 39-year-old man entered the inside of the statue to recover a phone that fell into the inside of a dinosaur. He probably tried to get into the device, walking his head down through a hole in his leg, then he wedged himself and was unable to get out alone or call for help.
According to local media, the family reported him missing before the service discovered the body inside the sculpture. Police pointed out that no signs of violence were found at this stage and that everything pointed to an unfortunate coincidence.
The leg of a dinosaur that became a trap
The paper-mâché and metal statue design formed a kind of empty shell with an interior resembling a narrow chimney. For a person who fell in with his head down, such a space could act as a vertical trap: lack of freedom of movement, limited air supply, no possibility of reversing position.
This case shows that even an object designed as innocent decoration can become a deadly threat if there are no scenarios for "untypical" human use. There are increasingly spectacular artistic installations in cities – from dinosaurs to abstract sculptures – but they are not always designed for safety in case of unauthorized entry.
Response of authorities and residents
After extracting the body of the service, they decided to remove the dinosaur from public space. In the following days the inhabitants saw only fragments of the structure, and in the place where the sculpture stood, flowers and symbolic gestures of memory appeared.
The case echoed widely in Spanish and international media, primarily due to extraordinary circumstances of death. Local officials and public space designers received a painful reminder that unusual accidents must also be taken into account when designing urban attractions.
