Sri Lankan Man Dies Attempting To Set World Record For Longest Time Being Buried Alive

Things that make you go...huh? A Sri Lankan man has died while trying to set a record for the longest time spent buried alive. 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 137 miles (220 kilometers) north of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. A local newspaper reported that the trench was 10 feet (3 meters) deep. Basnayake was buried at around 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Police said that when he was brought to the surface at 4 p.m., he was unconscious and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Get this, there's no world record for the longest time buried alive. So the attempt, which ended his life, was for nothing...sad. Continue reading... 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.