A view of Slovenia's eastern town of Zidani Most, where a funeral snafu happened, forcing the country's health minister to offer his resignation. Photo: Arab News

An identity mix-up in Slovenia plunged one family into mourning, only to discover after their grandfather's alleged funeral that they had buried another man from his care home.

"Somebody buried their father and later found out he was alive, while another family realized now that it was their father who died," authorities said. 

The two residents, both the same age and one of whom had advanced dementia, were taken to hospital suffering from health problems. One of them died two days later, only for the wrong family to be informed, and the family organized a cremation and held a funeral.

The mistake was only discovered after the second man recovered from his illness and returned to his care home, where staff realized that he had the wrong identity tag on his wrist.