A Co Donegal woman had to identify two Spanish victims of the Omagh bombing whom she had known for many years, the inquest into the bombing heard.
Ms Paula Mahon, a youth leader from Buncrana, was the first to identify the bodies of Fernando Blasco Baselga (12) and Ms Rocio Abad Ramos (23), both from Madrid.
In statements to the inquest she said she had been shown the bodies at 9 a.m. on Sunday, August 16th, 1998, the day after the explosion. She said she had known Ms Abad Ramos for 10 years and Fernando "all his life", as he had been a family friend.
Neither of the families of the dead was present, but their solicitor, Mr Patrick Laverty, said they had instructed him to pass on their thanks to those who had worked in the aftermath of the bombing. The host families, who had been looking after the two Spaniards in Donegal, had been travelling to the inquest, he said.
"They wanted to be here for these traumatic moments in the lives and deaths of these two people," he said.
Ms Abad Ramos was also identified by her father, Mr Jose Esquivel Abad. A statement from her father said she had lived with the family in their Madrid home all her life.
The inquest heard that Ms Abad Ramos had been one of the leaders of a group of children from Spain and Co Donegal who had left Buncrana on Saturday morning to go to Omagh. The former deputy state pathologist, Dr Derek Carson, said that from burns on her legs it seemed she had been quite near the seat of the explosion. These were not the cause of death, however.
Dr Carson said Ms Abad Ramos had suffered an "atlanto-occipital" dislocation due to the bomb explosion. This was where the top vertebra in the spine became separated from the base of the skull, causing damage to the spinal cord. Under examination from Mr Laverty, Dr Carson said death would have been to all intents instantaneous. There were other injuries, to the lungs and spleen, he said, but these would have been survivable. Fernando Blasco Baselga was also later identified by his mother, Mrs Lucrecia Baselga Ridruejo, on the Sunday evening. Dr Carson said that it appeared that Fernando had not been very near the seat of the explosion as he had suffered very little injury. The only wound of any real significance was a penetrating wound to his neck which had fractured his atlantal vertebra. The wound had been caused by a piece of flying debris. Death would have been almost instantaneous.
Under questioning from the coroner, Dr Carson said: "One would have to say he was very unlucky to have been struck by one piece of shrapnel," which if it had struck anywhere else would have been survivable.
Mr Leckey asked Mr Laverty to pass on his sympathy to the two families whose loved ones had "died very traumatically, a long way from home".