Man lives in coffin to cure phobia

A 78-year-old man has built himself a live-in crypt in an attempt to cure himself of a phobia.

Brazillian tourist park operator Freud de Melo suffers from taphephobia - the fear of being buried alive - and has decided to live in a converted coffin in an attempt to ease the condition.

The crypt features a television, a water pitcher, an air vent and tubes which he uses to speak to those outside the contraption.

"I have awful, awful nightmares of trying to dig myself out from underground," said de Melo.