‘They’ll be finding bodies next year’: a renowned forensic scientist on Nepal’s ‘extreme challenges’

Prof Richard Bassed helped identify Boxing Day tsunami and victims of Australia’s catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires. ‘The randomness of this massive flood,’ he says. ‘That gets to you’

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The bodies of some of those killed in the Nepal-Tibet flood disaster may never be found, and some of those that are may never be identified, a world-renowned forensic scientist says.

Prof Richard Bassed, the head of forensic medicine at Melbourne’s Monash University, spent three months in Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and also helped to identify victims of Victoria’s catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.