Three days after the train accident that left 275 dead and more than 1,000 injured In eastern India, the still pending identification of more than a hundred deceased is the most urgent issue for the authorities of the Asian country.
A crowd of grieving relatives of the victims has moved to Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Odisha where the tragedy took place last Friday, to Try to identify your loved ones.
UNRECOGNIZABLE BODIES
But the seriousness of the accident and the days that many of the corpses spent out in the open have complicated the task, the city’s highest-ranking official, the collector Vijay Amruta Kulange, explained to EFE, to the point that the authorities they are considering cremating the unidentified bodies after taking DNA samples.
“The main challenge for identification is decomposition, because corpses they were outdoors for more than 36 hours. Due to the injuries, they began to decompose very quickly,” Kulange explained.
The state of the bodies is such, Kulange explained, that the relatives “They come to see them but (…) they are not sure if they are the bodies of their relatives.”
Delhi television NDTV showed images of the crowded hospitals and health centers, with anxious relatives comparing crude photographs of the victims in print or on screens with those on their mobile phones.
The worst rail accident in India in the 21st century took place last Friday in the Balasore district, when a signaling error which is being investigated led a passenger train onto a track occupied by a second parked freight train.
At that time, another passenger railway that was passing through the station collided with both.
At first, the rescue forces, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the collision between three trains, sent the bodies to nearby hospitals. Even a school was turned into a makeshift morgue.
Finally, the authorities 193 bodies were transferred yesterday to the capital of Odisha, better equipped and connected to receive the families of the victims.
Since several hospitals in Bhubaneswar received the bodies yesterday, they have set up a control room to provide photographs taken “from various angles” of the victims, available both in the centers themselves and on the Internet.
“We have already identified more than 70 people,” Kulange said.
151 IDENTIFIED
In total, of the 275 deaths, 151 have been identified, Odisha General Secretary Pradeep Jena revealed on Twitter.
“All the bodies are being handed over after due process to be transferred to their destinations. Arrangements to transport the bodies to their destination are being carried out by the Odisha government” free of charge, Jena added.
It’s a race against time and the authorities must decide what to do with the bodies that have not been identified.
“Maybe a mass cremation, we have to consider that option and we are ready for it,” Kulange explained, a move that could come after DNA samples are taken from all the corpses.
