Three days after the crash, only 35 bodies had been handed over to relatives from an overall official death toll of 270.

There were 242 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian. At least eight local people, including four medical students, living in a residential area of Ahmedabad where the plane came down have also died, a senior health official told the BBC.

Just yesterday at Ahmedabad airport, Sangeeta Gauswami clung tightly to her only child, her heart swelling with pride as she saw off her 19-year-old son from their home in the western Indian state of Gujarat,