International News

BRUSSELS, (APP/AFP): Working with teeth, fingerprints and
DNA, and sometimes relying on just tiny body parts, the forensic experts dealing with the victims of the Brussels attacks warn it could take weeks to identify them.
In a large military hospital complex in a leafy district north of
Brussels, the experts are at work to establish the identities of corpses that have in many cases been left missing body parts by the blasts.
Guarded by heavily armed men in combat gear, the Reine Astrid
hospital is being used as Belgium’s missing persons centre, or Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit.
The painstaking nature of the work means families from around the
world face a long and agonising wait for the final confirmation that their loved ones were among the 31 people killed.
“Yesterday we had around 30 people here looking for family,” Ine Van
Wymersch, who runs the centre, told AFP. “None of the bodies has yet been
formally identified, the process is ongoing.”
Doctors, police, psychologists and Red Cross personnel are on hand to
help people seeking news of missing relatives.