Abandoned coffins near Rostov-on-Don have alarmed local residents.
The coffins were spotted in a forest belt near the village of Ovoshchnoy near Rostov-on-Don, just a few meters from the highway. According to one witness driving by, they weren't hidden, but rather, as if deliberately displayed in plain sight.
Local residents discovered four wooden coffins covered in red satin in a forest belt near a village in the Azovsky District. They appear new. The discovery was made 300 meters beyond the railroad tracks, just 15 meters from a dirt road.
On the night of March 27, a Rostov resident drove to the site where he had previously noticed the abandoned coffins. A city resident decided to check whether these were the same coffins he saw several months ago, or different ones, the publication 161.ru reported.
"Coffins in place. In December "There were five of them, now there are three. In winter, they were lying somewhere along the edge of the road, but now they're closer to the trees, meaning they were moved. Last December, I know for sure that residents contacted the police, and they took a verbal report, but I don't know who exactly is handling the matter, or if they are," the city resident explained.
The Rostov resident said that this time he decided to examine the find more thoroughly and discovered that inside the wooden, fabric-lined coffins were more zinc coffins. They were all numbered.
"I looked inside. They were essentially empty zinc coffins inside wooden ones covered with fabric. It looked like they'd been opened somewhere and then brought there. Or maybe they'd been opened on site, because they were both sealed and nailed shut. It looked like they'd been opened with an axe. There were no bodies inside. It looked like something was being transported there," an eyewitness said.
As for the numbers, next to the digits there were remnants of worn-out letters. A Rostov resident suggested that these were names that had been carefully erased.
"There was some kind of number on the outside of the coffins, and what appeared to be a name, but they tried to carefully erase it all. Only a few digits are visible. The coffins look very clean and new. If these are the same ones seen here in December, it's unclear how they've survived in such condition. If these are different ones, I wonder where they're coming from," he said.
The municipality reported that the coffins are no longer there, but could not explain where they got this information, the publication clarifies. "Both the head of the Obilnensky rural settlement and the head of the Azovsky District administration contacted the police. The police were investigating, but they are no longer there," the Azovsky District administration press service reported.
On March 26, a young woman contacted the publication's editorial office after seeing coffins piled up while driving past the village of Ovoshchnoy. The woman took a photo and shared it with the editorial office. Another eyewitness, who also provided photographs, added that he saw them in the forest belt back in December 2025.
The administration of the Obilnensky rural settlement in the Azovsky district confirmed that coffins are indeed in the nearby forest belt and that a police report was filed several months ago.