Men steal hearse - and a body - for drunken pub crawl in Soweto

Two South African men have been arrested in Soweto for allegedly going on a drinking spree in a stolen hearse with a body in the back, police say.

The men were caught after the hearse ran out of petrol and they asked three women they had met at a drinking den to help push the hearse, local media say.

The men told the women they were on their way to bury the body of a relative but the women told the police.

The hearse's driver, Siphiwo Mkhize said he had parked the hearse outside his house while he went inside to get money to buy fuel.

"It is a shocking thing to realise there are people who could steal a hearse with a dead person inside," he said.

"Going shebeen-hopping with a corpse takes the cake. What kind of people are these?"