A help desk set up by the Railways at Bangalore's Victoria Hospital for information on the victims of the train fire in Nanded Express
Bangalore's Victoria Hospital became the centre of grief as family and friends of those who died in Saturday morning's horrific train fire in Andhra Pradesh waited to claim the bodies that were brought here yesterday afternoon. There has been a delay in handing over the bodies because some of them are so badly burnt that positive identification is not possible without DNA testing.
Chandrashekar's 60-year-old stepmother and her twin sister were among those travelling on the ill-fated Nanded Express. Both women, musicians Lalitha and Padmini, died in the fire.
"I was able to identify the bodies based on the ornaments they had worn... Just to be very sure, we are trying to undergo DNA testing," Chandrashekar, who was at the hospital, told NDTV.
Another family member, Ganesh Rao, said that information was hard to come by. "We came here yesterday evening and had to wait for five hours for basic information of who to contact, what documents to provide to claim the body."
Dr Devdas, Professor and Head of the Forensic Medicine Department of Bangalore Medical College, is helping with the entire process.
"Some of the other bodies have been identified but relatives don't want to take a chance and have agreed for a DNA test. When we proposed that it's a better way of identification rather than the visual identification, they understood and are waiting," he said, adding the process would take another day.
A railway help desk was set up at the hospital, with a list of those travelling in the coach that caught fire - under the headings of dead, injured and missing.
"Out of 26 bodies, 20 have been identified. And eight bodies have been handed over to the people. DNA sampling has been done for almost everybody and the DNA report may be available by tomorrow evening or morning," Anil Kumar Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager told NDTV.
It will take a long time for the tears to dry for the families of those who lost their loved ones in Saturday's accident. The wait to claim the bodies to perform the last rites has only worsened their agony.
List of those still missing after fire on Nanded Express: