Russia: St. Petersburg official says 53 plane crash victims have been identified

Fifty-three victims of Saturday's Airbus A321 crash in Sinai have been identified, the head of the Committee for Law, Order and Security of St. Petersburg, Leonid Bogdanov, said during a press briefing in St. Petersburg, Wednesday. "Fifty-three bodies have been identified until now. First of all I would like to thank forensic investigators, the workers of expert bodies, including hospital men who are working scrupulously, professionally, carefully, preparing the remains for the identification procedure. This is of an importance, and I am stressing once again the high quality of performance of these workers," Bogdanov stated. "Dear colleagues, 8 victims, Leningrad region residents, were identified at 8PM today. Now we are working on the organisation of delivering bodies to the burial places. All delivery and burial expenses will be organised by the government of Leningrad region and municipality," Bogdanov's colleague Roman Markov, the first deputy chairman of the Leningrad region, added. Kogalymavia (Metrojet) flight 7K9268 crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula around 23 minutes after take-off on Saturday, killing everyone on board. The passenger plane was heading to Saint Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh when it broke up in the air. The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over a vast area of the Sinai Peninsula. There were a total of 224 people on board the Russian commercial plane - 217 passengers, including 25 children and seven crew members. Reports indicate that all but five passengers - four Ukrainians and one Belarusian - were Russian.