SURABAYA, Indonesia, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers searching for victims of AirAsia jet plane that crashed on Sunday have discovered 26 corpses, Agolo Suprapto, senior official at national search and rescue office said on Friday.
The official said that 22 out of the 26 have already been evacuated to Pangkalan Bun of Central Kalimanan province and Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, but 4 others out of the 26 bodies remained in a U.S. rescue ship at sea.
"As many as 22 bodies have been pulled out so far, and there are also 4 corpses at a U.S. ship now," he told Xinhua over phone.
Nine bodies out of the 22 have been carried to Surabaya city, Awi Setiyono, spokesman of East Java provincial police said on Friday.
"The rest are still in Pangkalan Bun and are being prepared to be carried to Surabaya city," he said.
One of the bodies has been buried after experts identified her and three other were successfully identified on Friday, with five others still under identification, said Budiono head of team of Disaster Victim Identification.
More family members and relatives of the victims rushed to the Police Hospital Bhayangkara in Surabaya city on Friday.
The ill-fated Singapore-bound AirAsia QZ8501 flight that departed from Indonesia's Surabaya carried 155 passengers and seven crews.
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