Police called after 'dead body' seen being wheeled through Leicester campus

Police were called to reports of a dead body being wheeled through De Montfort University campus – only to discover it was a lifelike mannequin.

Officers trawled CCTV footage and interviewed business owners in the De Montfort University area of the city after they received a call from a concerned passer-by.

The well-intentioned resident was convinced a corpse was being pushed in a wheelchair from Leicester Royal Infirmary to the campus, on Friday morning.

Investigating officers discovered it was actually a dummy used to teach medical students, being wheeled by hospital staff to a lecture at the university.

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Tony Cope, who owns a pub in the area, saw stills from campus security cameras and said he was convinced the "gruesome" image was of a dead body.

Police popped into his pub, The Font, in Gateway Street, to see if his security cameras had filmed the alleged dead body as it was wheeled past his pub.

"The police came to see my footage and of course I said yes, but when I asked them what they were looking for they showed me this picture of a dead body taken by the camera across the road," said Tony.

"It put me on a bit of a downer to be honest. I wasn't expecting to see a dead body. It was gruesome. They didn't say anything about it being a mannequin.

"To be fair to whoever called police, it looked exactly like a body wrapped in black bags slumped in a wheelchair.

"I couldn't believe my eyes. It looked real. I'm relieved to find out it was a mannequin."

Leicestershire Police received a call reporting "a person with a body in a wheelchair" at 8.30am on Friday.

A spokeswoman said: "Police went to check it wasn't anything sinister and made inquiries. There was some training at the LRI and it was part of that."

The mannequin can be plugged into a computer to simulate emergency situations, such as cardiac arrest, and was being transported by hospital staff to be used for training nursing students at the university.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: "They were doing some training for medical students at De Montfort University. It was such a nice day they decided to walk rather than drive.

"In hindsight they realised it wasn't the best thing to do.

"It is a very realistic looking mannequin and it is used to train our future doctors and nurses."