Manuel Abad, director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Ceuta, stated that the institute has so far been able to identify only six people out of 82 bodies recovered in the city following the mass entry on July 30 and 31. He explained that three of the victims were identified through DNA analysis, while the other three were identified by their fingerprints, according to Europa Press.
The institute’s director mentioned that his team had been under intense pressure from the outset because of the scale of the crisis, describing what the city went through as a “tragedy” that required health sector workers to put in many “hours of work and coordination.”
The forensic doctor stressed that the authorities had been careful at every stage to preserve the dignity of the deceased, explaining: “Islamic rites were performed for them to ensure the dignity of the dead and respect their religious beliefs.”
He added that these rites were carried out after forensic autopsies in cases where death had resulted from violent causes or an accidental nature.