Crematory

Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones Sunday as South Korea mourned the deaths of at least 151 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, who got trapped and crushed after a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.

Fifteen years after cremations were legalized in Greece, the country's first such facility has opened in Ritsona on the island of Evia, and has already carried out 15 cremations.

Licensed in the summer of 2018 and inaugurated on September 30, the private venture is 70 percent owned by Crem Services SA. The nongovernmental Greek Cremation Society (GCS) holds a 30 percent stake.

The leader of centrist Potami, Stavros Theodorakis, said on Tuesday Greece needs to speed up the establishment of cremation sites so that people will stop sending their dead to Bulgaria where the procedure is allowed.

"I hope you never have to experience anything like it, my dears." A friend's mother passed away recently. Up until her death, when she was more than 90 years old, she had insisted that her body be cremated, having gone through the painful experience of burying her father's remains when she was 40. The family obliged, transporting her body to Bulgaria, where she was cremated.

Cemeteries in Greece are overcrowded and have nowhere to expand . For this reason bodies are often kept underground for three years before being exhumed so that bones can be stored at an ossuary.

Families have the option of leasing for another three years, but the costs are prohibitive. Most people choose to exhume the graves.

Greeks who want to be cremated after their death have a problem: there's not a single crematorium in the country. That's mainly because the Greek-Orthodox Church is strongly opposed to cremation. Economic hardships means that few can afford a private grave.

Authorities are looking for a site in Athens on which to build a crematorium, the city?s Mayor Giorgos Kaminis (photo) said on Tuesday.

?The issue is progressing and we are in the process of looking for a site,? he said after meeting Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis.

Kaminis has pledged that a crematorium will be built in Athens by 2016.