Tasnim � The bodies of three people on board Iran�s Sanchi oil tanker, retrieved from the blazing vessel before its sinking, will be repatriated from China after completion of DNA testing procedures, an Iranian official announced.

Managing Director of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) Sirous Kian-Ersi said on Thursday that the three bodies will return home once China receives the DNA samples taken from the families of the doomed vessel�s crew.

The pressing matter at present is that families of the martyrs on board Sanchi take DNA test and the samples are sent to China, the official said on the sidelines of a mourning ceremony in commemoration of the victims.

The next of kin of the Iranian crew have been referred to the forensic medicine centers of the provinces of Tehran and Fars for DNA testing in order to identify the bodies retrieved from the oil tanker.

Sanchi, with 32 people -30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis- on board, collided with a Chinese freight ship in the East China Sea on January 6 and caught fire after a huge explosion.

The Panama-registered tanker was carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra-light crude that is highly flammable, to South Korea.

It sank on January 14 after the spread of fire to new oil condensate tanks created blazes as high as 100 meters and increased temperature to 350 degrees Celsius (660 degrees Fahrenheit).