India train accident.. Families seeking to identify victims among mutilated and charred corpses

In a secondary school that has been temporarily converted into a morgue, a couple look at photos of the mutilated bodies of three trains collided in India, before one they believe belongs to their 22-year-old son turns up. They tried not to believe their intuition, but the necklace around the neck of the owner of the picture confirmed that he was their son.

The mother tried to hold back her tears and laid her head a little on her husband’s shoulder for a few seconds, before turning her eyes away from the employee’s computer trying to identify the victims of one of the worst train disasters in India’s history.

People flocked to Bahanaga Secondary School, less than a kilometer from the site of the train collision Friday near Balasore in the eastern state of Odisha.

At least 288 people were killed in the tragedy and more than 900 others were injured.

The Times of India newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a preliminary investigation report, that a “human error” in regulating traffic lights may have caused the collision, saying that the Coromanda Express train linking Calcutta and Madras was given the green light to run on the main track, but It was rerouted due to human error to a rail that was being used by a freight train.

The passenger train at a speed of about 130 km per hour collided with the freight train, which led to three carriages overturning on the adjacent tracks and colliding with the back of an express train that was on a journey between Bangalore and Kolkata, the newspaper added, quoting the same report.

The Times of India said it was the overturning of the vehicles that caused the most damage.

“The bodies that arrived here were basically in bad condition,” said Arvid Agarwal, who is in charge of the makeshift morgue, noting that the extreme heat “exacerbated the mutilation” of many of them.

In the school principal’s office, he told AFP, “the biggest challenge is identifying” the bodies.

Next to him, volunteer Siddharth Gina, 23, sat with a computer with numbered photos of all the bodies recovered and sent to the makeshift morgue since Friday evening.

Corridors of corpses

The stench of rotting corpses permeated the high school.

Outside, dozens of people sat, hoping to find their relatives.

Once a family identifies their relatives in the photographs, the family receives a receipt allowing them to see the body. But the process is never simple.

“We have received 179 bodies, but only 45 of them have been identified,” said Ranajit Nayak, the police officer in charge of exhuming the bodies.

Bodies in white bags marked “identified” or “unidentified” were strewn across a bloodstained corridor on Saturday night, while others were laid out in classrooms.

The policeman added, “The bodies arrived, which consisted of only a torso, a completely burnt face, and a mutilated skull, and there were no other identification marks left.”

“Do you expect the process of identifying these bodies to be easy for anyone?” he added.

Work began late on Saturday night to move the unidentified bodies to a center equipped with better mortuary facilities, awaiting the arrival of families from long distances.

The unknown bodies will be transferred at a later stage to permanent morgues in the city.

For some like Abijit Chakrabarti, 27, the waiting period was over when he saw a photo showing a bracelet worn by his missing 25-year-old brother-in-law, Subhashish.

But others continue their desperate search.

Arvid Agarwal, in charge of the makeshift morgue, cautioned that some families may need to take nucleic acid tests to provide matches.

Noor Jamal Mundon (38 years old) from Bardaman district has not received any news yet about his missing brother Yad Ali (35 years old).

“We asked in all the hospitals and at the accident site throughout the day,” Mondon said. “We will now look again at the bodies in the morgue.”