Amou Haji: 'World's dirtiest man' dies in Iran at 94, report says

An Iranian man nicknamed the "dirtiest man in the world" for not taking a shower for decades has died at the age of 94, state media reported on Tuesday.

Amou Haji, who did not wash for more than half a century and was single, died on Sunday in the village of Dejgah in the southern province of Fars, IRNA news agency reported.

A short documentary film titled The Strange Life of Amou Haji was made about his life in 2013, according to Iranian media outlets.

Haji had avoided showering over fears of "getting sick", IRNA quoted a local official as saying.

But "for the first time a few months ago, villagers had taken him to a bathroom to wash", the news agency reported.

Haji, who was a smoker, told the Tehran Times newspaper in 2014 that he especially enjoyed eating porcupine.

He drank water from an oil can.

Going so long without washing meant his skin came to be covered in "soot and pus", according to IRNA.