A factory workshop labeled a "food market" in North China's Tianjin Municipality is found to use hearses and refrigerated coffins to store frozen seafood. Photo: Screenshot of a video posted by KNEWS.

Police recently found that a factory workshop labeled a "food market" in North China's Tianjin Municipality had been using hearses and refrigerated coffins to store frozen seafood, according to a video posted on Knews on Tuesday. 

The case first caught the police's attention when hearses were seen driving in and out of the workshop. When police searched the "food market," they found empty refrigerated coffins and compartments meant for storing corpses. The workshop owner explained to the police that they were being used to store some fish and shrimps in preparation for celebrating Spring Festival. 

"Won't it bring bad luck to eat those these fish and shrimp?" one netizen commented after seeing the video. "If I were him, I wouldn't eat a single bite."

Another commenter joked, "The owner did indeed store corpses in the coffins… corpses of the poor fish and shrimp."

"Since the business license of the factory workshop specifies funeral services and funeral facilities, they didn't break any laws so far," said a local police officer. However, refrigerated coffins may suggest that bodies had been stored there, and had to be dealt with immediately.  

Police are looking further into the case to determine if the hearses that went into the factory carried corpses, and if they did, it also raises questions as to where the corpses came from.