Four bodies from hotel bombings yet to be identified

The bodies of four dead victims of Friday`s bomb attacks on the JW Marriontt and Ritz Carlton hotels have yet to be identified, police said.
Chief of the Jakarta Police`s public relations unit, Senior Commissioner Chyshnanda Dwi Laksono, said here on Tuesday the identification process was still underway.

"A police disaster victims identification team (DVI team) continues to compare body samples with existing data to find out, but as per Tuesday morning four bodies have yet to be identified," Laksono said.

He said comparative data on such things as physical characteristics, blood type and other things were obtained from relatives of the victims and from DNA tests.

According to Laksono, the four bodies were still kept at the forensic lab of Soekanto Polic Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta.

Last Friday`s bombing of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in the Mega Kuningan area in South Jakarta killed nine people and injured more than fifty others.

Of the nine bodies, five have been identified to be of Evert Mokodompit of Indonesia, Timothy D Mackay of New Zealand, Senger Craig Andrew of Australia, McCevoy Garth Rupert John of Australia, and Verity Nathan John of Australia.

But Laksono added that the Police investigation team had yet to confirm the suspects in the bombings, including the possible involvement of fugitive Malaysian-born extremist Nurdin M Top.

He said the police investigation team was still collecting a number of data or evidence related to the bomb attacks on the two hotels in Jakarta.

According to Laksono, the further evidence was still needed by the police to support their investigation into the bombings that had claimed nine lives and wounded more than 50 people.

Laksono said an identification team was until now still at the blast site to collect evidence and try to match it with the real conditions in the field.

The police had confirmed that the explosions the in JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels were the work of suicide bombers who had presviously gained entry into the hotels by posing a guests.(Jakarta,ANTARA News)