“When our ambulance arrived on the scene, we followed all the procedures,’’ Gerrit Bradnick, operations manager at ambulance service Distress Alert, told dpa.

“There were no signs of life,’’ he added, explaining that the woman was then taken to the morgue where several hours later she was found to be alive.

Bradnick said, given the severity of her injuries, it is not possible the woman moved or made a sound, but must have been found to be breathing.

He said she could not have been aware of where she was.

The woman was then taken to hospital, he said, adding that his team is “devastated’’ about the mishap.