Singapore police assist Nepal with disaster victim identification

A 35-member Singapore Police Force team is working in Nepal to identify victims of the Aug. 26 flash flood, a task complicated by the scale of the disaster and the condition of some bodies. The team began arriving on Sept. 2 and is supporting local authorities with aerial surveillance and forensic work.

Assistant Commissioner Patrick Tan, the contingent commander, said the immediate priorities were disaster victim identification and training Nepali police to operate drones for search and rescue. The group includes officers trained in fingerprint lifting and photography, fingerprint examiners from the Integrated Forensics Service, a forensic pathologist and a forensic technical officer from Singapore's Health Sciences Authority.

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For now, we are focusing on disaster victim identification as well as training Nepali police to operate drones to support their search and rescue operations.

Assistant Commissioner Eugene Wang, who commands the disaster victim identification team, said the mission covers victims of every nationality. “We are not able to isolate and say we only target the Singaporeans. Since the victims are from many nationalities, it is a collaborative effort, involving many countries. We are here to help in the collective effort to identify the victims so that we can bring reconciliation and relief to the families,” he said.

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We are not able to isolate and say we only target the Singaporeans. Since the victims are from many nationalities, it is a collaborative effort, involving many countries. We are here to help in the collective effort to identify the victims so that we can bring reconciliation and relief to the families.

At hospitals in Kathmandu, Singaporean officers are taking fingerprints from bodies in mortuaries while working with Nepalese police, forensic officials and health authorities. In Singapore, officers are gathering antemortem information, including X-rays and medical records, as well as DNA samples from families of missing people. Singapore will send that information to Nepal, which will conduct the matching under INTERPOL's disaster victim identification protocol.

Nepal has reported at least 1,300 deaths and about 5,000 missing people. Nine Singaporeans are among those reported missing. Wang said the scale remained striking: “More than a thousand bodies have been recovered, but more than 4,000 are still missing. That’s over 5,000 people of different nationalities.”

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More than a thousand bodies have been recovered, but more than 4,000 are still missing. That’s over 5,000 people of different nationalities.