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The long road to reunite families with their lost loved ones is beginning to unfold.

As more names are brought forward, memorials are being planned and fundraising campaigns were launched Thursday to help those close to the 30 Edmonton victims of the Ukrainian airline crash in Iran on Wednesday.

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Reza Akbari, president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton, said Thursday he believes there were 27 people with Edmonton ties that died in the Ukrainian Airlines International Flight PS752 near Tehran, Iran, that killed 176 people including 63 Canadians Wednesday.

After initial reports estimated there were 30 victims from Edmonton, Akbari is now working to confirm names and photos of international students.

“There are names that are international students,” said Akbari. “We know some of their friends but are also having a very hard time trying to get a hold of their family back in Iran.”

As the work continues to identify the victims, Akbari said it will be a long road ahead for families planning funerals for their lost loved ones. With no Iranian embassy in Canada or diplomatic ties between the two countries, it could take months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to have any bodies returned to Canada.

Akbari said the time difference between Edmonton and Iran and poor interconnection in Tehran are adding to the difficulty of getting a hold of family members.

“With this given scenario it might be even more difficult for Iran to send someone,” said Akbari, referring to the sheer number of victims and rising tensions between Iran and the United States. “Everything being in a national defence kind of security, I highly doubt that there would even be a chance that someone could try to do it.”

A majority of the victims’ family members have instead begun to make their way to Iran to prepare and attend funeral ceremonies there, Akbari said.