In Thailand around 5,000 people are thought to have been killed when the giant wave struck on Boxing Day 2004. The number of foreigners reported missing in the disaster prompted the Thai government to enlist the help of forensic experts from across the globe. They set up a specialist disaster victim identification centre, where identification work is still continuing months after the disaster hit.
For those who lost relatives in the disaster the identification and repatriation of a body is essential in allowing them to start rebuilding their lives.
The tsunami swept through an area of Thailand hundreds of miles across, scattering debris and the dead alike. Simply recovering all the bodies was a mammoth task for a police force already stretched to the limit rescuing injured survivors. With so many bodies being recovered, temples were being used as temporary mortuaries. With no electricity or running water they were hardly ideal. But there was simply nowhere else to take them.
Photographs of the bodies had been posted outside these temples. Friends and relatives desperately trawled them for any signs. But for the forensic experts, the idea that relatives could be relying on visual identification was worrying. Mistakes can always be made when distressed relatives try to confirm the identity of their loved ones by sight. In Thailand the conditions made identification even more difficult.
The heat of the Thai sun accelerated the decomposition process, leading to discolouration of the skin and causing the outer layers of skin to begin peeling off. The heat also meant bacteria grew at an extreme rate. Bacteria give off gases which can cause bodies to swell, further hampering visual identification.
The situation was eventually brought under control. A new mortuary was constructed with refrigerated containers for storage of the bodies and purpose-built examination rooms. Only now could the full forensic procedures begin.
Tuesday 21 May 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQypaDUIz4A
0 comments:
Post a Comment