Dublin - The Belfast-born man who died in the earthquake has been temporarily buried in Turkey because the scale of the disaster has made formal identification of his remains impossible, the British Foreign Office said last night, writes Edward Power.
Mr Tom Blackwood (65), a Hertfordshire-based communications engineer originally from Northern Ireland, was working at a naval base in the port city of Golcuk when the earthquake struck. The extent of the tragedy has prevented his family from formally identifying the body and he has been buried to ensure his remains are not lost among the thousands of other casualties, a Foreign Office spokesman said last night. Mr Blackwood will be exhumed and flown back to Britain as soon as circumstances allow, the spokesman added.
Mr Blackwood, a married man with two children, had worked in Britain for more than 30 years. He was believed to have been due to return home this weekend after completing a two-week assignment for Coventry-based Marconi Communications.