A man who was injured from a fire in a Nairobi supermarket has been confirmed dead, thus bring the death toll to 26.
A fire broke out on Wednesday in a Nairobi supermarket in downtown during which the man jumped from the first floor of the burning building to escape the fire. As a result, the man got seriously injured. He died on Thursday.
Throughout Friday, forensic police and firemen fought their way carefully through the gutted debris, placing small red flags on what they thought were human remains.
Deputy government pathologist Dr. Jane Wasike led the experts in locating and picking up the remains as a mortuary attendant put them together. The bodies were later wrapped in white and black body bags and taken to the mortuary for preservation.
Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the bodies would be preserved for further DNA analysis to identify them.
"They are badly mutilated and it will take a technical analysis to identify them, which could take long," said Kiraithe.
Kiraithe said police are also probing reports that exit doors of the supermarket in the Kenyan capital were closed to prevent looters from entering when the fire broke out.
"Investigations have begun to establish what happened during the incident. If anyone restricted those who were inside from escaping it is criminal," Kiraithe said at the scene late on Friday.
"We can now confirm that people were trapped and died inside the supermarket."
(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2009)