A Thai woman who was presumed dead was discovered alive moments before her cremation at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok.

According to the BBC, temple staff were stunned when they heard faint knocking from the coffin. Pairat Soodthoop, general manager of Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple, said he asked for the coffin to be opened and found the woman “opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin”. “She must have been trying to get attention for some time,” he added.

The 65-year-old woman’s brother had been told by local officials that she had died, although he did not have a death certificate. As Mr Soodthoop explained how to obtain one, the desperate tapping from inside the coffin alerted the staff. The temple’s abbot immediately ordered that the woman be rushed to hospital.

Doctors later diagnosed her with severe hypoglycaemia, a condition where blood sugar levels fall dangerously low, ruling out any respiratory or cardiac failure, according to reports.

The woman had been bedridden for the past two years, and her brother said her condition appeared to worsen on Saturday, leading to the mistaken belief that she had passed away. The family had travelled almost 500km (311 miles) from Phitsanulok province for the cremation ceremony.