(VIDEO) Man crushed to death by his mother's coffin at her funeral

An Indonesian man, Samen Kondorura, 40, was killed yesterday when his mother's coffin fell from a funeral tower and crushed him during a service on the island of Sulawesi.

The video here shows the moment when pallbearers lost their footing while carrying the coffin up a bamboo ladder and it fell on Kondorura, crushing him to death. 

The casket fell as the group hoisted it onto a lakkian - an ornately carved tower where the dead are placed before elaborate traditional funeral rites.

'As the mother's coffin was being raised to the lakkian, suddenly the ladder shifted and collapsed, the coffin fell and hit the victim,' Julianto Sirait, chief commissioner of the Tana Toraja resort police, told AFP.

Graphic video from the scene shows the ladder slip just as the casket enters the tower, sending the men tumbling several metres to the ground where the victim is crushed by the coffin.

Horrified onlookers rush to the men's aid but Kondorura died later in hospital.

Sirait said the accident happened because the ladder was not properly reinforced but the family has declined to press charges.

The body of Kondorura is now resting alongside his mother Berta, he added.

When ethnic Torajans die, local residents hold elaborate funerals that can last for days and involve music, dance and the sacrifice of water buffalo.

Samen Kondorura