Nearly 14 years later, 9/11 victim identified

New York, March 20: Nearly 14 years after the September 11 attacks on New York, the remains of a victim from the neighboring state of New Jersey has finally been identified.

The New York medical examiner identified the man as Matthew David Yarnell, who was aged 26 when he died in the Al-Qaeda attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Yarnell was identified by new DNA tests conducted on human remains recovered during original operations at the ruins of the World Trade Center in 2001 and 2002.

Only 60 per cent of the 2,753 people missing and believed dead in the New York attacks have been formally identified.

Yarnell's identification brings the total number identified to 1,640. There have been no identifications of 1,113 missing people and 7,703 of the samples of human remains cannot be identified.

Tests are ongoing on the remains and developments in science in recent years have helped make new identifications.

PTI