Turkey tries to identify 2,500 bodies of earthquake victims

More than a month after the earthquakes that devastated southeast Turkey, the Turkish authorities are still working to identify some 2,500 bodies, Turkish coroner Ahmet Hilal estimated on Friday.

The number of bodies still unidentified was around 2,500 last week, but thanks to the dna testingthis figure is decreasing every day, Hilal explained to NTV.

He explained that most of the unidentified victimsabout 1.500are in the province of Hatay, the most affected by the tremors, where the city of Antioquia was practically completely destroyed.

In many places, rescue teams took samples from the corpses that could not be immediately identified, either from blood or, if that was not possible, pieces of tissue, bones or teeth, before the bodies were buried, so that they could later be compared with the DNA of those searching for a missing family member Hillal said.

Identification of bodies in Turkey after earthquake

There were cases, although few, in which victims were buried without first taking a sample, and then it becomes necessary to reopen the grave, he added.

According to the coroner, only in the province of Kahramanmaras, the second most affected by the earthquakes, were 425 cases in which a grave had to be reopened. It has also happened on several occasions that a dead person was buried under a mistaken identity.

«Someone identifies a corpse as a member of the family, says for example that it is their mother and is buried as such, but later they see that under the rubble they find their mother’s body, and they have to open the grave to return to bury the first person in a graveyard for strangers; That happens,” added the expert.

According to official data, the earthquakes have left about 47,000 dead in eleven Turkish provinces ranging from Diyarbakir, in the Kurdish part of Anatolia, to Hatay and Adana, in the Mediterranean.

Some 230,000 buildings have been destroyed or so damaged that they must be demolished immediately.

In many areas, such as Antioquia, the removal of rubble is just beginning, so it is unknown if the death toll may still rise significantly.

With information from EFE and the Caribbean

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