Bring them home
Agony of Brit families waiting for relatives’ bodies to return
Clean-up workers rest outside St Anthony’s Shrine FAMILIES of British victims of the Sri Lanka massacre face an agonising wait for their bodies to be released.
Mortuaries on the island are struggling to cope with the sheer scale of the atrocity, which claimed 253 lives.
Experts from abroad, including the UK, will help after the Easter Sunday attacks on four five-star hotels and three churches.
It is understood all British victims have been identified, but initial findings need to meet UK and international standards.
Interpol recommends a fourstep procedure to establish identity, including final measures before the body can be released.
Three Danish victims were identified through DNA, some of the Britons from their dental HOTEL MANAGER ON SUICIDE BOMBER’S COLD-BLOODED WAIT
records and four Chinese from their fingerprints.
It comes as it emerged the bomber of the Cinnamon Grand, said to be Inshaf Ibrahim, ate breakfast alongside his victims.
Manager Rohan Karr said: “He came down in the morning with VICTIMS Bill Harrop and wife Sally Bradley died at Cinnamon Grand
a rucksack on his back. He sat, he ate, he waited for people to gather towards the buffet.
“When he saw a bigger crowd, that’s the time he decided this is the time for me to create maximum damage.” GP Sally Bradley, 56, ex-fireman husband Bill Harrop, 56, and IT boss, Lorraine Campbell, 55, were among those killed at the hotel in Colombo. At the Shangri-La, Anita Nicholson, 41, her son, Alex, 14, and daughter Annabel, 11, from Upminster, Essex, were killed as they ate breakfast. Daniel Linsey, 19, and his sister Amelie, 15, from London, are the other Brits known to have died.
A total of 96 victims have been released to their families, medical officer Dr Ajith Tennakoon confirmed. Yesterday, with Sri Lanka’s churches closed, Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith held a TV mass where he called the massacre “an insult to humanity”. And police began searching the HQ of Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath. Around 100 suspects are being held.
He sat, he ate... when he saw a bigger crowd he decided this is the time