The mortal remains of 31 Indians, including 23 Malayalees, who died in the Kuwait fire tragedy were received at the international airport here on Friday by Central and state ministers, including Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who paid tributes to the deceased.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) flight carrying the mortal remains of 45 Indians who died in the tragic fire incident in Kuwait two days ago, landed at the international airport here at around 10.30 am.

Of the 45 mortal remains carried by the IAF C30J aircraft, 31 were received at the airport here.

The 31 bodies include 23 Keralites, 7 Tamilians and one person from Karnataka, officials said.

Vijayan, speaking to reporters at the airport, said that ‘pravasis’ (expatriates) were the lifeline of Kerala and the deaths of so many Indian expatriates in the fire was a “huge disaster for the country”.

The CM also said that the incident was also a huge disaster for the expatriate community.

“It is an unending loss for the families of the deceased. The Kuwaiti government has taken strong and effective action following the incident and the Indian government intervened in a good way.