UPDATED SUNDAY 18:30: Spanish police have now identified all victims
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Nine Finnish tourists died and a further dozen or more were seriously injured on Saturday night in a horrific motorway bus crash near Malaga on Spain's Costa del Sol.
Some 18 hours and more after the accident, identification of the victims is still incomplete (see updated information below).
The mood in Malaga on Sunday was one of stunned shock, as those who died in the accident belonged to large vacation parties, according to the Finnish Red Cross.
In addition, not all those who were injured and taken to at least four different hospitals in the region have received information about their relatives.
A total of sixteen injured Finns are still in hospital in the Malaga area. Of these, fourteen are in a serious condition. Two Spaniards are also in hospital - one is the driver of the coach.
One Finnish woman in her 50s is said to be in a coma and in critical condition.
Her identity has not yet been determined. Physicians are extremely concerned for her welfare, according to the Carlos Haya Hospital's Dr. Jose Antonio Trujillo, who spoke to the Finnish News Agency on Sunday.
The hospital has not divulged the sex of those injured, but they are said to be between 32 and 67 years of age.
An infant was also admitted to hospital on Saturday night, but has since been released.
The 48 coach passengers were all customers or employees of the travel operator Aurinkomatkat, and the Aurinkomatkat CEO Jukka Salama has reported that the names of all those on the coach are known to the company.
One might therefore believe that the process of identification would be a simple one, comparing the list of those alive with the passenger manifest and determining who has died. However, there are many factors hampering the identification procedures and there is a wish to avoid sending false news of somebody's having been killed, or alternatively raising false hopes.
Superintendent Göran Wennqvist from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that efforts are ongoing to determine to which hospital each of the injured and dead have been taken and to draw conclusions on the basis of this as to who might have died.
But the process is a slow one, as the hospitals are unwilling to divulge the names of dead or injured directly to the travel operator.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that many of those seriously injured are not in any position to speak and to state who they are.
The Spanish officials have collected a good deal of information already on the deceased, which can be compared with information brought from Finland by NBI investigators.
A team of NBI forensic experts left Finland by plane for Malaga at 17:20 on Sunday afternoon.
In practice, the list of those who died is increasingly clear, but the relatives also have to be contacted before any names are released.
In some cases the relatives of those killed were also aboard the coach, in which case they have naturally been informed wherever possible.
By coincidence, the Nordic liaison officer with the Spanish police happens to be Finnish and originally from the NBI. He has been working non-stop with local officials since Saturday night.
UPDATE: According to the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Spanish police have now (Sunday, 18:37) reportedly identified all the Finnish victims of Saturday's bus crash. The last piece of the jigsaw fell into place in late afternoon, when the identity of the final unknown individual was clarified.
The Foreign Ministry will pass on the information to relatives based on the report provided by the Spanish authorities. Finnnish officials do not have any doubts on the veracity of the list or the identifications, but will confirm the matter for themselves. Final confirmation is expected later this evening, according to the Finnish News Agency, STT.
More on this subject:
 SUNDAY MORNING 1:40: At least nine Finnish tourists dead in Costa del Sol bus crash
UPDATED SUNDAY 18:30: Some relatives travelling to Spain this evening
UPDATED SUNDAY 19:40: First of injured in Spanish bus crash to return to Finland tonight
Links:
Updated information from an English-language news site in Spain
Helsingin Sanomat
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