A Dutch shipping company has apologised for a “very unfortunate accident” after three funeral urns filled with human ashes washed up on beaches in the Netherlands, sparking fevered speculation about how they got there. “But it turned out really to be human ashes. “Strict rules apply in Germany to the handling of deceased person’s remains,” the site said. “With rare exceptions, it is forbidden to keep ashes in the garden or inside the home, so they are almost always given to the undertaker. But on Wednesday the Dutch shipping company Trip Scheepvaart of Scheveningen in The Hague said a planned mass marine funeral had gone horribly wrong when the box containing the three urns “slipped from an employee’s hands over the railing”.

Source: The Guardian January 02, 2019 14:45 UTC