Man dies in Quebec cemetery after tombstone falls on him

A 77-year-old man died Monday night in a cemetery in Buckingham in western Quebec after a tombstone fell on top of him, police say.

Officers said the man had gone to St. Gregoire Cemetery to visit the site where his parents were buried and was digging next to a tombstone when it fell.

"It appears he moved the stone and was digging a hole around the foundation when the concrete block fell on his back," said Const. Isabelle Poirier.

Another visitor to the cemetery noticed an apparently abandoned car on the grounds at the corner of Buckingham Avenue and Lépine Avenue and called police just after 7 p.m.

Officers searched the cemetery for the car driver and found the man under the gravestone. Paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene. - cbc