KZN residents asked to assist in identifying 57 bodies at Phoenix mortuary

Government authorities in KwaZulu-Natal are calling on residents to present themselves to the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary to claim unidentified bodies.

This follows the recent violence in the area where residents clashed with looters. At the moment, the facility has 57 unidentified bodies.

The province’s Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said they believed most of those there were killed in recent violence in Phoenix, but this was yet to be confirmed.

Simelane-Zulu said unidentified bodies at the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary could not all be linked to recent violence in the area because the facility also catered for people from outside the community.

“The majority of them will come from the rest of the north of the province, not necessarily just Phoenix, but the bigger number, certainly comes from what had happened in Phoenix,” she said.

She said they were still trying to ascertain the cause of deaths for many in the facility.

“People did die in Phoenix, it’s a point we cannot run away from. Now, we leave that particular element of it to the SAPS and to the security cluster to be able to identify how many people had passed on in relation to the unrest,” the MEC added.

The police’s Lirandzu Themba said at their last count, they had identified 20 bodies linked to civil unrest in Phoenix last week.

-EWN

In other news – VIDEO: Man punches Gogo and runs away

Cops in New York City have launched a manhunt for a man seen on video punching a 60-year-old woman in the back of her head while inside a train station.

According to Washington Examiner, the incident happened around 10 pm on Thursday, 15 July, at Grand Central subway station. Learn More

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