WENZHOU, Zhejiang - Yang Feng has had many reasons for mourning since a bullet train crashed into the rear of another bullet train on Saturday in this city.

Yang Feng and his relatives look for his wife's body in a funeral home in Wenzhou on Monday, July 25, 2011. He lost four relatives and his unborn child in the bullet train collision. [China Daily]

Among the 39 confirmed victims of the accident were Yang's 29-year-old wife, 52-year-old mother-in-law, 31-year-old sister-in-law and 3-year-old nephew. His wife, Chen Bi, was seven-months pregnant with a boy.

They were killed while traveling in the 16th carriage of the D3115 bullet train back to their hometown of Wenzhou. Of Yang's relatives, only his 53-year-old father-in-law survived; he had been walking in the passage between the rows of chairs inside the carriage when the train was hit from the rear.

On Monday, Yang said he is now most interested in knowing the cause of the crash rather than in getting monetary compensation for the loss of his loved ones.

In an interview, he cast doubt on the way authorities had gone about rescuing victims of the crash, saying the work had not begun soon enough and had not lasted long enough. He also had questions about his wife's face, which had been disfigured. He wondered if that was caused by the crash or by the mechanical diggers used in attempts to rescue the victims.

Yang, together with about 100 relatives of other victims, sat in front of a Wenzhou government building in silent protest on Monday night, asking for a reasonable explanation of the accident.

Yang learned about the crash from his father-in-law, who called him at 10 pm on Saturday from the hospital. Dismayed, Yang and his cousin rushed from Shaoxing, a city in Zhejiang province, and drove about 4 hours to the accident site.

In the dark, they found the bodies of Yang's sister-in-law and nephew in the mud, the cousin, who declined to give his name, told China Daily.

"We climbed to the elevated railroad, where the damaged carriage was, and searched for the others over and over again," he said. "But we couldn't find them."

About 200 relatives and friends of Yang's and Chen's came to Wenzhou, going from hospital to hospital in search of their missing relatives on Sunday.

Yang found his mother-in-law in a funeral parlor. Also there was his wife, whom he could only recognize because she was still wearing a wristwatch he had given her.

The cousin said Yang Feng began to cry and wonder aloud if his wife's face had been disfigured by the crash or a botched rescue attempt.

On Sunday afternoon, Yang wore mourning clothes and recounted his story to reporters, according to a video put on the Internet later that day.

"We, Yang Feng and I, have three requirements for the authorities," the cousin said on Tuesday. "First, the bodies should undergo plastic surgery. Second, the authorities should make the causes of the accident and related details public. Finally, they should explain how the rescue operation was conducted."

He said that operation had ceased by the time they had arrived at the accident site at 2 am on Sunday.

"Why did it stop so early?" the cousin asked. "How was a little girl found alive after they had claimed that no more signs of life had been detected?"

Teachers from a primary school near Wenzhou, colleagues of Yang Feng's sister-in-law, came to the funeral parlor to comfort the distressed families, the newspaper Modern Express reported on Tuesday.

A male teacher who declined to provide his name said: "It's too awful. Chen's father survived but will live alone without his wife, two daughters and a grandson. It is like a living death."