Back garden burials

A Serbian man wants to turn his home into a church because so many of his neighbours and friends are buried in his back garden

Dragan Djordjevic, 53, from the southern village of Grbavce, applied for permission to register his garden as a cemetery so his mother could be buried there when she died ten years ago.

He said: "The nearest cemetery was too far away. I thought if I buried her in the back garden I could visit her grave more often, and save time.

"Then a neighbour asked if they could bury a relative there as I had permission, and now I have 70 neighbours and friends in my back garden."

He said he has now applied for permission to turn the house into a church, daily newspaper Glas Javnosti reported.