Compilation of international news items related to large-scale human identification: DVI, missing persons,unidentified bodies & mass graves
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Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Lagos to conduct DNA on crash victims for identification
FOLLOWING the manner bodies of the victims of the DANA Airline plane crash was burnt beyond recognition, the Lagos State government, on Monday, said it will conduct DNA test on some of the recovered bodies for identification purposes.
The development came even as the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Muhammad Sani-Sidi, said most of the passengers in the business class were still trapped in the topmost floor of the two-storey building hit by the aircraft.
The state government said the evacuation exercise would have come to an end by the end of operations on Monday, while those not much mutilated as a result of the burnt would be taken to mortuary.
Speaking at the crash site, the Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA), Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said the bodies would be taken to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for specialised test.
Also, Oke-Osanyintolu said the state government had prepared an emergency place for residents of the building at Agbowa area of Lagos.
He lauded all the security agencies, including the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Red Cross, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Nigerian Police and the military, for their cooperation.
While appealing to well-meaning Nigerians to cooperate with the government in the area of disaster and emergency control; the LASEMA officer declared; “We are evacuating them to LASUTH where they are going to conduct a specialized test on them. However, the residential people are being treated at the hospital. Four of them have been discharged while those who are critically ill are being treated by the state government and it is free of charge.
“We want to make this place safe and as you can see, we are taking all the debris to another place. So far so good, the operation is safe and well coordinated with little challenges, but we have been able to conquer that. I’m the incident commander, we want to save lives and properties here.”
The NEMA boss who also confirmed the movement of the bodies to LASUTH, however, most of the economy passengers were burnt beyond recognition.
He could not however give specific numbers of the recovered bodies in the crash site, but explained that substantial bodies had been recovered by all the security agencies at the site.
“The exercise will come to an end today (yesterday) because we have made a lot of progress so far. As you can see, all the concerned agencies are all here, but the violation of the accident scene by the residence is a bad a bad thing. It is the responsibility of the media to help enlighten and inform these people about their role in a situation like this. it is a collective responsibility.”
Besides, the Comptroller General of Fire Service, Mr. Olusegun James said that his men have been up to the task in the recovering of the bodies through the dousing of the inferno, which enveloped the whole building.
“All the security officers on ground are carrying out the recovery of the dead bodies. Although, it is taking them time to do it and I’m sure they will soon be through with it. More so, when there is no serious life that is being threatened for now.
“I won’t be able to give you the numbers, but you know a lot of reports have gone that all the passengers of the plane were said to have died. So, I think they are trying to recover all the bodies and identify them too.
“I think by the end of today (Monday), we should have come to a close of the whole thing. The corpses would be taken to the mortuaries and the one that are not totally mutilated would be taken by their relatives.”
Tuesday 5 June 2012
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/42049-lagos-to-conduct-dna-on-crash-victims-for-identification
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