A woman with poor eyesight caused a police alert when she rang to report a dead body on the rooftop opposite – unaware that it was somebody sunbathing.

The incident happened when the elderly woman who admits she has difficulty seeing shouted across to the person she could see lying on the ground on the opposite roof asking if they were okay.

The incident occurred on September 2 in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China.

The elderly woman had shouted across at the woman lying on the top of the building opposite, asking if they were okay and if they had hurt themselves.

When there was no sign of life, she started calling the police and shouting into the phone that they needed to come quickly because somebody had died on the roof of the 35-storey building opposite.

The woman sunbathing said she was listening to the pensioner and only realised towards the end that the pensioner was talking about her. She said she tried to call over, but the old woman was so busy on the phone, and the distance was so great that she didn't hear.

Terrified that the police were going to target her for wasting their time, she then gathered up her stuff and fled quickly.

The old woman's confusion might have been caused by the fact that the sunbather was also fully clothed. This is not uncommon in Chinese cities, where exposing too much skin is frowned on, but also because people want to enjoy being out in the sun without the risk of ultraviolet light or getting sunburn.