Toll at 270 as DNA analysis gains pace
Ahmedabad/New Delhi, June 15 -- The death toll in the London-bound Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad rose to 270 on Saturday, officials said. "Around 270 bodies have been brought to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital so far from the plane crash site," President of Junior Doctors Association of BJ Medical College, Dr Dhaval Gameti, told Press Trust of India. The death toll in the country's worst ever air disaster in three decades was earlier put by authorities at 265.
The London-bound Air India flight, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (AI 171) with 242 people on board, crashed into a medical hostel and its canteen complex in the Meghaninagar area on Thursday afternoon, moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. "Around 270 bodies have been brought to the civil hospital so far from the plane crash site," President of Junior Doctors association of BJ Medical College, Dr Dhaval Gameti, told PTI.
The process of identification of victims by matching the DNA samples is currently underway, and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives once the process is complete, he said. Additional Chief Fire Officer Jayesh Khadia said, "Our firemen, who are helping forensic and aviation experts in their ongoing investigation at the crash site, found some body parts from the canteen's rubble on Friday, while a body was found today morning." Apart from central and state government agencies, a team of the National Security Guard (NSG) has also been deployed at the Air India plane crash site. Official sources said the NSG team has been deployed to assist other agencies in relief operations and they do not have any investigative powers. NSG commandos were seen at the crash site on the hostel building where the tail of the plane got stuck after the crash. All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board AI171 and another 29 people including five MBBS students on the ground were killed when the aircraft came down moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport before falling inside the nearby campus of the state-run BJ Medical College and going up in flames.
Authorities of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital have so far identified six victims on the basis of the DNA samples and initiated the process to hand over the bodies to the relatives, officials said. Earlier, eight victims, who were identified by their relatives and did not need DNA profiling as their bodies were not damaged, had been handed over to their families by the hospital, they said....
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