Odisha train accident: Fifty bodies unclaimed weeks after India crash
A month after a deadly train crash in India killed at least 293 people, more than 50 bodies remain unclaimed.
On 2 June, a passenger train derailed on to an adjacent track after hitting a stationary goods train in the eastern state of Odisha.
Another train passed by and hit some of the overturned coaches.
In India’s deadliest rail accident this century, more than 1,000 people were injured.
While the accident site has since been restored, many families are still searching for their loved ones’ bodies and can’t find closure.
In Bhubaneswar city in Odisha, Shiv Charan, originally from West Bengal, has been staying in a guest house for the past month.
There is a government hospital nearby, Aiims, where the bodies are kept.
A deep-freeze container has been used to store 52 bodies. Families face additional challenges when identifying bodies due to their poor condition.
Often, Mr Charan visits the hospital hoping to find his brother Krishra’s body, who he spoke to moments before the crash. There is no end to the agonising wait.
As he waits for the results of the DNA test, he has been able to identify some of his brother’s clothes, but hasn’t claimed them yet.
Likewise, Mr Charan sent his samples for DNA testing – a process that authorities use to identify bodies so they go to the right family when there are multiple claimants.
Adding that he would not leave without his brother’s body, Mr Charan told the BBC that he had not been told when the report would be available. “I want his last rites to be carried out properly,” he says.
A second victim, Anzarul Haque, is survived by his wife and three children. His wife often breaks down in tears at their home in West Bengal state, as her husband’s body remains unfound.