The mayor of a small town in Peru tried to play dead after being caught by police violating coronavirus lockdown rules while drinking with friends. 

Jaime Rolando Urbina Torres was pictured lying in an open casket wearing a face mask by officers who came to arrest him on Monday night in the town of Tantará, in the south of the country.

Police say he violated curfew and social distancing laws in order to drink liquor with his friends, and was drunk when he was arrested.

It is not clear exactly where he and his friends were drinking, or why there were open caskets close at hand. 

Torres has previously been accused by locals of failing to take the threat of the virus seriously and failing to implement safety precautions in the town.

The town, along with the rest of Peru, was officially placed into lockdown 66 days ago by the central government.

But angry locals say Torres has spent just eight days in the town since the start of the lockdown, and has failed to put in place any local safety measures.

The absentee mayor was hauled to a town meeting on May 9 to defend himself, when he unleashed a series of angry tirades against locals.

According to local media, he was repeatedly shot down by his own officials when he gave excuses for failing to open emergency coronavirus quarantine shelters.

He was also accused of failing to put in proper safety checks to ensure people from outside the town cannot enter it.

The Americas is now at the epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic, with the region seeing coronavirus case totals and deaths rise faster than any other region.

The region currently has 2.1million cases of coronavirus, a higher total than previous epicentre Europe which has 1.9million.

Europe still has the most deaths of any region at more than 169,000, but deaths in the Americas are increasing at a faster rate.

Peru has recorded a total of 104,020 cases and 3,024 deaths, and is among the top four countries in terms of the rate at which deaths are increasing.

Brazil and Mexico, also in the Americas, are also on the list along with Russia.

In total, there are now more than 5million cases of coronavirus confirmed worldwide after the WHO reported the single-largest daily increase of the pandemic Wednesday at 106,000. 

Source