Buenos Aires, Nov 27 (AP) Three funeral workers have been fired for posing for photos alongside the body of soccer star Diego Maradona shortly before his funeral.

The images distributed across social media created outrage, even death threats, across a nation that venerated Maradona, who died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 60. Tens of thousands lined up for a chance to file past his body at the nation's presidential palace on Thursday.

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Claudio Fernández confirmed to Radio Diez that he'd lost his job at the Pinier funeral home, along with his son Ismael and Claudio Medina.

One of the images shows Fernández and his son — smiling and with thumb raised — alongside Maradona's body in the coffin on Thursday. Medina appears in another in the same pose.

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Fernández insisted that he hadn't known they'd planned to take a photograph, much less distribute it. “It was something instantaneous. I'd just raised my head and my son did it like any kid of 18,” he told the radio station.

He said he had been receiving threats from others living in the El Paternal neighborhood where Maradona debuted as a professional in 1976 with the Argentinos Juniors team.

“They know me. I'm from the neighborhood," Fernández said. “They say they are going to kill us, break our heads.” The team issued a statement saying it was considering expelling Fernández from its membership rolls. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)