A victim of the September 11 terror attacks has been formally identified nearly 25 years after the collapse of the World Trade Centre.
New York City authorities confirmed that an adult woman has become the 1,654th victim to be formally identified from remains recovered following the attacks.
Her name has not been released.
The identification was made using advanced genetic genealogy, which combines DNA analysis with genealogical and family research to establish an individual’s identity.
Scientists and investigators have continued working for more than two decades to identify victims from the World Trade Center site.
NYPD Detective Gregory Paduano said the technology now available simply did not exist when the attacks happened in 2001 and that genetic genealogy offered significant potential for further identifications.
Forensic anthropologist Dr Jennifer Odien said the technique would not be suitable for every unidentified victim, but investigators have identified 47 DNA profiles which could potentially benefit from the technology.
Almost 22,000 pieces of human remains were recovered from Ground Zero following the destruction of the Twin Towers.
The extreme conditions at the site, including fire, bacteria and contamination, badly damaged much of the genetic material and made identification using the DNA technology available at the time extremely difficult.
Despite continuing scientific advances, many victims may never be formally identified.
The latest breakthrough follows the identification last year of three other victims, including Ryan Fitzgerald and Barbara Keating, while the family of a third woman requested that her identity remain private.
Fitzgerald was 26 and worked as a foreign currency trader for Fiduciary Trust in the South Tower.
After the first aircraft struck the North Tower on September 11, 2001, he contacted his family to tell them he was safe and was leaving his office.
Barbara Keating, 72, was a grandmother from Palm Springs, California, who had spent 25 years working as a public servant and had survived breast cancer twice.
She was travelling home to California after visiting relatives in Massachusetts when she was killed.
The latest identification comes just weeks before events marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard United Airlines Flight 93.
