After days of searching hospitals and bomb sites or waiting by the telephone for news, the harrowing journey for the families of those feared dead in the London bombings will end for many at the barracks of one of the most ancient regiments of the British army.
Behind iron railings at the headquarters of the Honourable Artillery Company in the City of London, police yesterday stood guard over a temporary mortuary where the bodies of the 49 people so far recovered from the wreckage of the terrorist attack have been laid.
Inside, pathologists have begun work on the task of identifying the men and women whose lives were lost in the bomb explosions shortly after 8.50am on Thursday morning.
The process of identifying the victims is painstaking and influenced by lessons learned from terrorist atrocities such as the Bali bombings and from the tsunami in south-east Asia. In some cases formal identification will be made through dental records or fingerprinting, but in others DNA testing will be the only way to identify those who were killed.
While the scientists work in the mortuary on Bunhill Row, relatives continue to wait for confirmation of their worst fears. But in some cases their search is over and the process of grieving has begun.
Over the last two days some 12 families have been visited at their homes to be told that although formal identification has not been completed, it is clear that their relative was killed.
"If there's any informal method of identifying someone or strong evidence to suggest that person's identity, then we are contacting the families and putting family liaison officers around them," said Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
For those relatives the nights spent searching hospital wards and the journeys to the scenes of the blasts, at least, are over.
The family of Helen Jones, 28, from Annan, in Dumfries and Galloway, are one such family. In a statement yesterday they said they had learned she was on the Piccadilly Line tube at Russell Square, from which bodies have yet to be recovered. "We have sadly come to the conclusion that she was in one of the carriages that was involved in the blast and that she died with so many others. Helen will live on in the hearts of her family and her many, many friends," they said.
For others, though, the quest for information on their missing loved ones continues.
At King's Cross station yesterday new posters carrying pictures of the missing feared dead had been stuck to the hoardings. Each carried a similar but now more urgent message: "Still missing. Please call."
While church services took place across London yesterday to pray for the victims and their families, many relatives travelled to the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria, where the police and the British government have set up a 24-hour family support centre staffed by trained officers and volunteers from the British Red Cross, Salvation Army and Victim Support.
- (Guardian Service)