<p> Three funeral workers have been fired for posing for photos alongside the body of soccer star Diego Maradona shortly before his funeral.</p>.<p>The images distributed across social media created outrage, even death threats, across a nation that venerated Maradona, who died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 60. Tens of thousands lined up for a chance to file past his body at the nation's presidential palace on Thursday.</p>.<p>Claudio Fernández confirmed to Radio Diez that he'd lost his job at the Pinier funeral home, along with his son Ismael and Claudio Medina.</p>.<p>One of the images shows Fernández and his son — smiling and with thumb raised — alongside Maradona's body in the coffin on Thursday. Medina appears in another in the same pose.</p>.<p>Fernández insisted that he hadn't known they'd planned to take a photograph, much less distribute it. “It was something instantaneous. I'd just raised my head and my son did it like any kid of 18,” he told the radio station.</p>.<p>He said he had been receiving threats from others living in the El Paternal neighborhood where Maradona debuted as a professional in 1976 with the Argentinos Juniors team.</p>.<p>“They know me. I'm from the neighborhood," Fernández said. “They say they are going to kill us, break our heads.” The team issued a statement saying it was considering expelling Fernández from its membership rolls.</p>
<p> Three funeral workers have been fired for posing for photos alongside the body of soccer star Diego Maradona shortly before his funeral.</p>.<p>The images distributed across social media created outrage, even death threats, across a nation that venerated Maradona, who died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 60. Tens of thousands lined up for a chance to file past his body at the nation's presidential palace on Thursday.</p>.<p>Claudio Fernández confirmed to Radio Diez that he'd lost his job at the Pinier funeral home, along with his son Ismael and Claudio Medina.</p>.<p>One of the images shows Fernández and his son — smiling and with thumb raised — alongside Maradona's body in the coffin on Thursday. Medina appears in another in the same pose.</p>.<p>Fernández insisted that he hadn't known they'd planned to take a photograph, much less distribute it. “It was something instantaneous. I'd just raised my head and my son did it like any kid of 18,” he told the radio station.</p>.<p>He said he had been receiving threats from others living in the El Paternal neighborhood where Maradona debuted as a professional in 1976 with the Argentinos Juniors team.</p>.<p>“They know me. I'm from the neighborhood," Fernández said. “They say they are going to kill us, break our heads.” The team issued a statement saying it was considering expelling Fernández from its membership rolls.</p>