Global General

All 97 bodies found after plane crash: Russian minister

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-11 10:20

Emergencies Ministry members carry a coffin with the remains of a victim of a Polish government Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft crash to load it into a truck in Smolensk April 10, 2010. [Agencies]

MOSCOW -- All the bodies of the victims in the Polish president's plane crash in western Russian have been recovered, Russian Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said Saturday.

"All the bodies of the dead have been located," Shoigu told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who has arrived at the site of the disaster.

Shoigu said that the bodies would be sent to Moscow for identification.

A highly-placed police source earlier told the RIA Novosti news agency that Polish President Lech Kaczynski's body may have been found, but that "additional tests, including DNA," would be needed to identify many of the bodies.

All 97 people on board died when the Tu-154 aircraft carrying Kaczynski, his wife, and a delegation of senior officials crashed in thick fog while attempting to land at Smolensk airport.

Kaczynski was on his way to a ceremony in nearby Katyn forest to commemorate the murder of some 20,000 Polish officers by Soviet secret police during World War Two.

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