What was this dude doing during the Pompeii volcanic eruption?

We all know that most of the people who were killed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the Pompeii volcanic distaster were frozen in time in various poses because of the volcanic ash, but this image posted on the Instagram page of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, seemed to show an individual who was immortalised while having a wank.

Immediately after the image was posted, people started leaving comments like: “he died holding his loved ones” and “he held on until the very end”, but volcanologist Pier Paolo Petrone got a little bit peeved with the fact that people were clearly unable to look beyond the fact that this unfortunate victim of a natural disaster seemed like he had been caught in the act by Mother Nature herself:

"There is no way to demonstrate any ‘masturbating man,’ and it is out of place to discuss such an affirmation of some young time waster.

The individual in the photo is an adult man, killed by the hot pyroclastic surge – hot gas and ash cloud which killed most of the population living around Mount Vesuvius – with both arms and legs flexed due to the heat.

Most of the human victims found in Pompeii often show ‘strange’ position of arms and legs, due to the contraction of limbs as a consequence of the heat effect on their bodies after death occurred."

Sometimes people need to lighten up.