Cop found alive in hospital after being declared dead in 2004

An Indonesian police officer who had been declared dead after a tsunami in 2004 was found alive in a psychiatric hospital.

According to the Daily Mail, family members found Abrip Asen at the hospital 16 years after the tragedy. He reportedly ended up there after suffering a mental breakdown due to the trauma he had witnessed.

'I couldn't believe it, 17 years of no news and we thought that he passed away, we didn't know he was still alive,' said a relative after local police confirmed that the man found in the psychiatric hospital was Asen,

A spokesperson for the Aceh Regional Police said: 'Even though he is experiencing mental illness due to the tsunami, his family is very grateful to have found him alive.'

It is unclear why his family were not notified he was in the psychiatric hospital.

Asen had been declared dead after he went missing while on duty when the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami hit Indonesia on Boxing Day.

The tsunami saw waves of up to a hundred feet tall, causing at least 167,000 casualties in Indonesia.