9 days in shipping container with corpse

Chittagong port worker Din Islam, 30, was discovered on Sunday inside the container at Singapore's bustling Pasir Panjang Terminal, next to another man who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

"Investigations indicate that both men are believed to be port workers from Bangladesh who were trapped inside the container by accident while they were taking a rest," a Singapore police spokesman told AFP.

Popular Singapore tabloid The New Paper said Din and the decomposing body of the fellow worker, whom he identified as Alamgir, were discovered after a trailer driver heard the survivor banging on the walls of the container.

The two had entered the container to take a nap after having dinner and a smoke midway through their 12-hour night shift on April 1, the daily said. "Then we just slept and we didn't know that the container had been picked up and transported onto the ship. By the time we woke up, we were probably already on the ship," Din was quoted by the New Paper as saying on his hospital bed.

He said his colleague, whom he estimated to be 40 years old, collapsed and died after a few days in the container, with nothing but a pack of cigarettes between them. "I really didn't know what to do. I was very scared... I cried and I prayed to God for a miracle to happen. I prayed for my life," he added.

When the doors of the container were finally opened in Singapore, the stench from the corpse was so strong that port workers who were at the scene stepped back before Din was found naked and dehydrated, the report said.

Singapore was ranked the world's second-busiest container port behind Shanghai last year, handling 28.55 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2010.