Air India Crash: DNA Of 11 Victims Matched So Far; 'Grief Counsellors' To Help Families, Govt Doctor Says

Ahmedabad, Jun 14 (PTI) The DNA of 11 victims of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad has been matched with their family members so far, a senior government doctor at the B J Medical College here said on Saturday.

As many of the bodies are burnt beyond recognition or damaged otherwise, authorities are carrying out DNA tests to establish the identity of the victims of Thursday's horrific tragedy.

Dr Rajnish Patel, professor of surgery at the B J Medical College, told media persons that the process of matching DNA has to be done meticulously.

It has legal and medical implications, so one can not rush through it, he said.

Vishwashkumar Ramesh, the sole survivor among the 242 passengers and crew who were on board the London-bound Air India flight, was stable and out of danger, Dr Patel added.

Alok Pandey, Gujarat Revenue Secretary, said at the press conference that the victims hailed from 18 out of 33 districts of Gujarat, besides other states of the country.

The families of 11 foreign nationals who died in the crash have been contacted, he said.

`Grief counsellors' will be provided to the families of the victims to help them deal with the mental trauma, Pandey said.

The bodies of eight victims, who were identified by their relatives and did not need DNA profiling, have already been handed over to their families by the hospital, officials said earlier.

The death toll in the plane crash rose to 270 on Saturday. The Centre set up a high-level multi-disciplinary panel headed by the Union home secretary to examine the causes that led to the disaster.

All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board AI171 and another 29 persons 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 in Meghaninagar area and going up in flames.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)

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