Ahmedabad: Until 6pm on Friday, forensics experts had identified 231 victims of the AI 171 crash after DNA cross-verification and handed over 210 bodies to their grieving families, Civil Hospital officials said.

"While 10 families have informed us that they will be reaching the hospital soon to collect the mortal remains for the last rites, three bodies will be handed over only after the completion of airline transfer formalities. Eight families have at least one member identified based on DNA profiling but are awaiting identification of the others," said Dr Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent of Civil Hospital, on Wednesday evening.

Of the 210 bodies handed over to the families, 155 are of Indian citizens, 36 of British nationals, seven of Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national. Eleven of the deceased are non-passengers, the officials said. "Out of the Indian nationals identified so far, 60 are from Ahmedabad, 23 from Anand, 21 from Vadodara, 14 from Diu, 11 from Surat and Kheda each, nine from Mumbai and seven from Bharuch and Udaipur each," Dr Joshi said.

Of the 71 patients admitted to the hospital after the crash, five are still under treatment. The majority suffered burns and fractures, hospital sources said. With about 16 bodies identified through genetic analysis in the past 24 hours, the forensic experts have entered the most challenging phase of the DNA profiling effort. Sources said the samples that remain are charred and experts are trying to extract DNA from the bone and tooth pulp tissue.

They added that in most cases, the bodies are desiccated, and thus tissue cannot be used for DNA extraction. Experts said that the retrieval and matching of DNA are long processes.

Even as the crowd has thinned out at Civil Hospital, teams of counsellors and govt officials are working to coordinate with the families. Sources said that in a week after the incident, most victims have been identified, and help is being extended to the families to send the mortal remains to places within or outside Gujarat.