Around a dozen families who lost their loved ones in Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire have given their DNA samples to authorities, hoping to help identify victims still missing more than a week after the deadly blaze.
Residents from Wang Fuk Court who visited the Kwong Fuk Community Hall near the estate on Monday morning were among about 100 families asked to take an oral DNA test to help with police investigations.
But most left hurriedly with their heads down in sorrow, as some said test results might take weeks.
Families usually arrived in pairs and spent about half an hour inside the centre, while a source said police had contacted around 100 households to obtain their DNA samples.
“Officers said they found a small lump of human remains in the unit, but don’t know whether it belongs to our mother or father, since both of them were in the flat at that time,” a woman told the Post, who only gave her surname as Chan.
Chan went with her sister, hoping to identify their elderly parents, who had stayed in a flat on the lower floors of Wang Cheong House for decades.
“They [officers] also told us that they might have been burned to ash, since the temperature inside was similar to an incinerator.”
