A Brazilian store sparkled outrage after workers covered a colleague who died during his shift with umbrellas so the business could stay open.

Manoel Moisés Cavalcante, 59, suffered a heart attack while working at Carrefour supermarket in Recife, Brazil.

His colleagues administered first aid to him while in the store, but they couldn't revive him. The man then died.

However, instead of closing the store while waiting for an ambulance to take the body, his fellow staff members covered him with three umbrellas.

They also placed boxes around him to ensure shoppers couldn't see the body.

Customers had no idea what was going on. They carried on, as usual, assuming the boxes and umbrellas were concealing a spillage or a display in progress.

Later, when pictures of the incident surfaced on social media, people condemned the store for how it handled the situation.

One person said:

"In Brazil, a salesman in a supermarket had a heart attack in the middle of his shift and died."

"They covered his body with umbrellas in the middle of the hallway and continued operating like nothing had happened."

Another tweeted:

"A worker died in a Carrefour supermarket in Recife... they covered up his body to remain open. Welcome to Brazil in the year 2020."

While a third person said:

"This is capitalism!"

The man's wife further condemned the store, saying:

"Apparently, human beings are worth nothing. People only care about money."

Following the backlash, the store apologized for how it handled the situation.

In a statement, it said:

"Carrefour apologizes for the inappropriate way it handled the sad and unexpected passing of Mr. Moisés Santos."

"The [store] made a mistake by not closing the store immediately… as well did not find the correct way to protect Mr. Moses' body."

"We reinforce that we did the first aid as soon as the sales promoter started to feel sick. We also activated SAMU, following all protocols for performing relief quickly."

"And after his death, we followed the instruction not to remove the body from the place."

"Carrefour also reiterates that it changed the guidelines to employees for rare situations such as this — including the store's mandatory closing — to bring more sensitivity and respect."

"We will continue to contact the family of Mr. Moses to support you in whatever is necessary."

This isn't the first controversy surrounding the way Carrefour stores handle incidents in Brazil.

In 2018, it faced another scandal when a security guard killed a street dog at a store in Sao Paulo. The incident also caused outrage on social media.