Forensic specialists begin exhuming remains of civil war victims

Forensic specialists have started exhuming bodies of 128 victims of the Civil War from the Valle de Cuelgamuros.

The exhumations are the first in a series which aims to identify those whose bodies were interred in the monument to those killed in the Civil War whose remians were moved from across the country without the families consent or knowledge.

It’s hoped that those whose remains are identified will be returned to their famililes for a formal funeral and burial near their homeplace.

Around 34,000 people’s remains – many of them victims of the Franco regime – are buried without identification in the basilica near to Madrid.