Brussels: The search grew increasingly desperate on Thursday for loved ones still missing after the Brussels attacks as relatives and friends clung to fading hopes of hearing good news. Tuesday’s attacks at Brussels airport and at a metro station in the Belgian capital killed 31 people and injured 300, 61 of whom were in critical condition.
Officers from the Belgian federal police’s disaster victim identification team were working at the sites of both attacks, poring over the remains in a grisly process. The task of identifying the dead was painstakingly slow, with names only gradually emerging, complicated by the violence of the explosions and because many of them are foreigners, police told RTBF television.
The victims came from across the world, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of Brussels, Europe’s symbolic capital. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has said around 40 nationalities were among the dead and wounded. They include citizens of countries including Bri-tain, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hun-gary, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United States.
A Facebook page where worried relatives, friends and colleagues can post notices of the missing has been set up. Pictures uploaded showed men and women, young and old, from Belgium and across the globe.
They have been shared thousands of times as people try to spread the word in the hope of finding out what happened to them. Chandrasekar Ganesan was looking for his brother Raghavendran, Infosys employee from Bengaluru who is missing.
