OSCE says 1,498 people killed in Donetsk region since March 13

09:50, 10.10.2014 1 min read

As many as 1,498 people, including 21 children, were killed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine from March 13, 2014 to October 8, 2014, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported on Thursday, citing the director of a Donetsk morgue's forensic examination department.

The director told members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) on October 8 that there were "60 bodies in the basement of the morgue, 20 of which had not been identified."

"The procedure in such cases in that unidentified bodies are kept for a maximum of ten days in the morgue after which authorities examine bodies, document any special marks, and bury the body in a listed location," the OSCE said in the report.

"The SMM saw several bodies waiting for examination and observed that the overall process was handled appropriately and that all data was stored in a database," it said.