The Chinese detectives helping Lancashire Police with the cockling inquiry say they are confident they have identified 15 of the cockle pickers and add that it won't be long before three others are identified.
A further two victims are proving more difficult to identify. The five Chinese detectives flew to Morecambe by helicopter at 2pm yesterday to meet local officers, contacts and to pay tribute to the dead.
Detective chief inspector Steve Brunskill, who is leading the Lancashire investigation team, said: "We have had tremendous help from everyone and a very complicated task has been made easier by the excellent co-operation between ourselves, the Chinese Consul and the Chinese Police.
"Working together we have been able to visit 15 families and have established visual identities by showing them photographs.
"But there is still work to be done and we have to compare DNA samples from relatives before we can satisfy the coroner that formal identification has taken place."
He said in the last three weeks Lancashire officers have worked with contacts in China who have visited families in the Fujian province and exchanged information.
As a result they are hopeful that they have identified 15 victims.
He added: "Now that Chinese officers are here in Lancashire we are in the process of confirming the information we have shared.
"We remain hopeful that we will be able to establish the identities of another three of the victims soon and again, we are working very closely with our Chinese colleagues to trace relatives.
"We have been provided with information from China about a number of people missing from homes and we have not ruled out that they might be among the people we are still trying to identify."
The leader of the Chinese team is Dr Zuo Zhijin, a leading expert on DNA procedures and victim identification.
Dr Zhijin said: "We are pleased that we have been able to work very closely with Lancashire officers.
"In China we have been able to work on disaster victim identification forms with relatives and then compare those with similar forms filled in here in Morecambe.
"The work has been difficult but it is pleasing to know that we are now so close to knowing the identities of the people who died so tragically."
He said he had been impressed by the hospitality he and his officers – Ms Feng Xie, Mr Man Niu, Mr Li Chunsheng and Mr Chen Yikum – had been shown and that they had been given the chance to pay tribute to the dead by laying flowers at the shoreline.
Later in the day they were due to visit Morecambe Lifeboat Station to thank volunteers involved in the rescue.
They also made a donation to the RNLI.
The police investigation is set to continue for the foreseeable future.