The family of a 95-year-old man declared dead was shocked to see him shivering when they began to give him a ceremonial bath just before his burial.

Budh Ram Gujjar had fainted on Saturday afternoon in northern India and failed to regain consciousness.

So his family, from the Jhunjhunu district in the state of Rajasthan,  called a doctor who pronounced him dead, a report in the Times of India said.

As the relatives were preparing his body for interment and a priest was reading the last rites, they poured water on the man’s still chest only to see it heave and his limbs begin to shiver with cold.

The man was carried to a bed and soon began breathing. He later said he had suffered chest pain and slept.

Although delighted that he was alive, the mourning male family members had already had their heads shaved, as is the customary ritual common in the region.