ODISHA: Over 80 bodies remain unclaimed five days after a horrific three-train crash claimed 288 lives in Odisha.
On Friday evening in Odisha, two passenger trains collided with a halted goods train, killing 288 people and injuring more than 1,000.
According to the BBC, many families said they were still looking for missing relatives.
India’s train accident death toll has reached 288
On Tuesday, Odisha’s chief secretary Pradeep Jen said that the official death toll had risen to 288 from 275 previously, with 83 remains still unidentified.
A passenger train derailed after entering a loop track by the side of the main line incorrectly and collided with a stationary goods train parked there. Its derailed carriages afterward hit the rear coaches of another passenger train traveling in the opposite direction.
More than 3,000 passengers were travelling in the two trains, according to sources.
Families of passengers from Odisha and other states have flocked to hospitals for information about their loved ones. However, the identity of mutilated and disfigured bodies was proving an uphill task.
Muhammad Nizamuddin could not find his grandsons’ remains at the Balasore District Hospital in Odisha.
Tafsir Ansari, 16, and his brother Tausif, 13, were traveling with their father on the Coromandel Express when it met the accident. While their father’s remains still missing, the teenagers’ images and those of many other victims were projected onto a hospital wall with Tafsir marked number 20 and Tausif 169.
The boys’ features were damaged due to their injuries, yet their grandfather said he recognized them after he travelled to the Bhubaneshwar, where unclaimed bodies have been kept in four hospitals.
An official informed him that Tafsir’s body had been claimed by another family but was yet to be handed over to them. He has now been directed to contact officials in Bhubaneshwar, who have been tasked with verifying claims, identifying documents, and ensuring the body was returned to the right heirs.
