In Brazil's bustling Amazon city of Manaus, so many people have died within days in the coronavirus pandemic that coffins had to be stacked on top of each other in long, hastily dug trenches in a city cemetery.

Some despairing relatives reluctantly chose cremation for loved ones to avoid burying them in those common graves.

Now, with Brazil emerging as Latin America's coronavirus epicentre with more than 6,000 deaths, even the coffins are running out in Manaus.

The national funeral home association has pleaded for an urgent airlift of coffins from Sao Paulo, 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) away, because Manaus has no paved roads connecting it to the rest of the country.