Relatives
of victims of one of Italy’s worst rail accidents gathered to identify
their dead July 13, as rescue workers at the scene of the head-on
collision between two trains dismantled the wreckage in search of
missing bodies.
Shell-shocked families at the Policlinico
hospital morgue in the southern Italy city of Bari were being called in
turns to search among the dead for their loved ones in the wake of July
12’s tragedy which left at least 25 people dead and some 50 others
wounded.
The civil protection agency said 25 bodies had been
recovered and two people were still known to be missing. Red Cross
workers asked for details to help identify the most badly mutilated
bodies, from tattoos to scars and clothing color. “We can’t rule out
finding other people in the wreck. It’s slow work,” said Luca Cari,
spokesman for the firefighter department, as emergency services used a
crane and diggers to clear crumpled carriages from the track near the
town of Andria.
Officials said they had recovered the black box
from one of the trains which investigators hope will throw light on the
high-speed collision, which happened on a stretch of single track in
open countryside.
