Identity Confusion for Kolkata Fire Victims
- 14 years ago
Relatives of victims of a fire in India's eastern Kolkata City have accused authorities of mismanagement.
The fire that gutted Stephen Court, one of the oldest buildings in the Kolkata, has so far claimed 24 lives.
On Wednesday, the day after the fire, relatives of the dead arrived to claim the bodies of their relatives.
But they now say the markers they had used to identify the victims, such as rings, wristwatches and chains, are missing.
[Sheikh Hashim, Victim’s Relative]: Hindi
"We identified the body of my nephew last night; he was wearing a wrist watch. Now this morning, we cannot find his body...health officials are not allowing us to identity the body. They are asking us to come later. This is not right."
Relatives of the victims say officials also changed the number tags of the bodies to further their confusion.
[Uday Prasad, Relative of a Victim]: Hindi
"We identified the bodies and they gave us token numbers… Now, today we see all the token numbers have changed. All the chains and other belongings... on the bodies are now removed. If the situation remains unchanged we will stage a protest."
Although the fire is under control, thin layers of smoke still billow from the building as rescuers searched for missing people.
Officials say the blaze was probably started by a short circuit in a lift, but the investigation is continuing.
This incident is the third major fire in Kolkata in the last two years.
The fire that gutted Stephen Court, one of the oldest buildings in the Kolkata, has so far claimed 24 lives.
On Wednesday, the day after the fire, relatives of the dead arrived to claim the bodies of their relatives.
But they now say the markers they had used to identify the victims, such as rings, wristwatches and chains, are missing.
[Sheikh Hashim, Victim’s Relative]: Hindi
"We identified the body of my nephew last night; he was wearing a wrist watch. Now this morning, we cannot find his body...health officials are not allowing us to identity the body. They are asking us to come later. This is not right."
Relatives of the victims say officials also changed the number tags of the bodies to further their confusion.
[Uday Prasad, Relative of a Victim]: Hindi
"We identified the bodies and they gave us token numbers… Now, today we see all the token numbers have changed. All the chains and other belongings... on the bodies are now removed. If the situation remains unchanged we will stage a protest."
Although the fire is under control, thin layers of smoke still billow from the building as rescuers searched for missing people.
Officials say the blaze was probably started by a short circuit in a lift, but the investigation is continuing.
This incident is the third major fire in Kolkata in the last two years.