Customers were left sickened after finding a dead body inside a restaurant toilet which had been left for hours.
Jasper's American grill restaurant in Largo, Florida, was open for business until police received a phone call from a concerned customer.
Officers were called at 6.30pm when a woman was found unconscious after suffering a heart attack inside a closed toilet cubicle.
The restaurant, which was packed, was still seating customers as the woman lay dead in the toilet.
Managers closed off the female toilet but the male facilities were still accessible as the woman laid there for two hours.
Owner of the restaurant, Fred Rosenthal, said the woman's body was left in the toilet as the coroner did not arrive until several hours later.
Miguel Perea, a manager at Jaspers, told Fox 5 he has received criticism from customers who slammed the business for remaining open.
He said: "It's not something that we are accustomed to. At the moment, we thought we were doing the right thing, and we realised maybe we were wrong."
He added the woman's body was removed to the side door of the restaurant as the business carried on trading.
Fred said: "If they feel that we disrespected them in any way, that is not what we were trying to do."
The chain have since apologised for their actions on Wednesday and said they are still trying to find the deceased's family members to try and apologise to them.
On Thursday, however, the restaurant reopened just a day after the woman was found slumped in the toilet dead.
They were open from 11am-12am Thursday which drew criticism from customers who believe it was too soon.
One customer took to social media and said the actions of the restaurant has made them never want to return again.
Tori Monshae wrote: “A women died in Jaspers (LARGO MD) restaurant yesterday in the bathroom (cardiac arrest) but let’s talk about how the establishment didn’t close the restaurant and let her body stay in the bathroom until closing..NEVER GOING THERE AGAIN.
“Like that’s just some money hungry a** s***… on top of that all the servers were under distress so the service was just trash (it’s kinda already expected tho) but like I just would never go to that ghetto a** place again.”
Jasper apologised to customers and have offered to help the woman's family.
The company said: "Last night, one of our customers tragically passed away within our establishment. On behalf of our ownership, management, and staff we send the sincerest and most heartfelt support and condolences to the deceased’s family.
"We will be reaching out to the family to see if there is any way we can support them in this time of grief.
"We immediately contacted county authorities and followed their protocol and procedure. Under the authorities’ guidance, we closed the area to patrons until all emergency services could arrive and followed the direction of the authorities."
