Diego Maradona's death: Funeral workers sacked for coffin selfies

The 60-year-old Argentinian football star, who had been battling health issues, died of a heart attack on Wednesday. Video / ITV

Three funeral workers have been fired for posing for photos alongside the body of football star Diego Maradona shortly before his funeral.

The images distributed across social media created outrage, even death threats, across a nation that venerated Maradona, who died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 60.

Tens of thousands lined up for a chance to file past his body at the nation's presidential palace on Friday (NZT).

Three funeral workers posed next to Diego Maradona's open coffin.

Claudio Fernández confirmed to Radio Diez that he'd lost his job at the Pinier funeral home, along with his son Ismael and Claudio Medina.

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One of the images shows Fernández and his son – smiling and with thumb raised – alongside Maradona's body in the coffin on Friday. Medina appears in another in the same pose.

Fernández insisted that he hadn't known they'd planned to take a photograph, much less distribute it. "It was something instantaneous. I'd just raised my head and my son did it like any kid of 18," he told the radio station.

Diego Maradona's coffin lies in state inside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He said he had been receiving threats from others living in the El Paternal neighbourhood where Maradona debuted as a professional in 1976 with the Argentinos Juniors team.

"They know me. I'm from the neighbourhood," Fernández said. "They say they are going to kill us, break our heads."

The team issued a statement saying it was considering expelling Fernández from its membership rolls.

- AP