Indonesia to send forensic team to Mecca to help identify hajj stampede victims
Xinhua, October 2, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Indonesian government will send forensic teams to Saudi Arabia to assist the Middle East country in identifying the victims at the hajj stampede tragedy.
Indonesian national police will deploy forensic teams, comprising the disaster victim identification (DVI) team and the automatic finger system (Inafis) team, on Friday evening, Brigadier General Agus Rianto, the national police spokesman said here on Friday.
The spokesman said that the DVI team comprises eight people and the Inafis team has two.
"The teams are likely to be dispatched (to Saudi Arabia) before midnight tonight (Friday night)," he said at the national police headquarters.
Director Executive of the Disaster Victim Identification unit at the National Police Anton Castilani said that the teams would help identify victims from Indonesia and other countries.
"We will identify all the bodies, which are not only those from Indonesia but also the victims (from other countries)," he said.
The death toll from Indonesian pilgrims at the hajj stampede in Mecca has climbed to 91 while 38 others are still missing, according to a statement from the Indonesian religious affairs ministry earlier Friday.
More than 168,000 Indonesians performed hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia this year.
The stampede last month killed some 769 hajj pilgrims and wounded about 900 others. Endi