The mayor of a small town in Peru tried to play dead after being caught by police violating coronavirus lockdown rules while drinking with friends. 

Jaime Rolando Urbina Torres was pictured lying in an open casket wearing a face mask by officers who came to arrest him on Monday night in the town of Tantará, in the south of the country.

Police say he violated curfew and social distancing laws in order to drink liquor with his friends, and was drunk when he was arrested.

It is not clear exactly where he and his friends were drinking, or why there were open caskets close at hand. 

Torres has previously been accused by locals of failing to take the threat of the virus seriously and failing to implement safety precautions in the town.

The town, along with the rest of Peru, was officially placed into lockdown 66 days ago by the central government.

But angry locals say Torres has spent just eight days in the town since the start of the lockdown, and has failed to put in place any local safety measures.

The absentee mayor was hauled to a town meeting on May 9 to defend himself, when he unleashed a series of angry tirades against locals.

According to local media, he was repeatedly shot down by his own officials when he gave excuses for failing to open emergency coronavirus quarantine shelters.

He was accused of failing to put in proper safety checks to ensure people from the outside the town cannot enter.

He was also accused of failing to put in proper safety checks to ensure people from outside the town cannot enter it.