Tests to indentify flat plunge trio (From This is The West Country)

Tests to indentify flat plunge trio

3:14am Monday 8th March 2010

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Tests to establish the identities of three people who plunged to their deaths from a high rise block of flats are expected to take place.

The bodies of two men and a woman were found at the bottom of a 31-storey block in Petershill Drive, Springburn, Glasgow. Their deaths are not being treated as suspicious.

It is believed the victims fell from the 15th floor of Block 63 at the Red Road flat complex, which were at one time the highest flats in Europe.

Many of the flats - which are earmarked for demolition - are occupied by asylum seekers and refugees. In recent years some of the flats have housed people from Kosovo, Africa, Asia, the former Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq.

Local people said they believed the deceased were from overseas. Their 51-year-old neighbour said they had lived there for two months but she did not know them.

Local resident Elaine Sandford, 40, said she believed the deceased were Kosovans who faced deportation.

Elizabeth Neilson, 42, who lives in the opposite block, said she was "traumatised" after opening her blinds and seeing three bodies lying on the ground.

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: "Inquiries are ongoing to establish the identities of the three people involved and post-mortem examinations will take place in due course to establish the exact cause of death, however, at this time there does not appear to be any suspicious circumstances."

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, a charity which supports and campaigns for refugees and asylum seekers, said: "We are concerned about who these people are and whether they were claiming asylum in this country, whether they had recently been given a negative decision by the UK Borders Agency and whether they were our service users or volunteers."

Glasgow Springburn Labour MSP Paul Martin said: "This is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of myself and the community are with the families of those who died in this tragic event."

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