Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy were among the first state officials to arrive at the crash site.

After the Chief Minister and other ministers reached Mangalore later this afternoon, it was announced that the Kerala and Karnataka governments would discuss the formalities related to bringing the crash victims' bodies to Kerala for burial.

Family members who were expecting their kin to arrive home yesterday were stunned to hear the shocking news in the morning and were glued on television news, even as some of them frantically tried to contact other relatives and family members in the Gulf.

Of the 158 killed aboard the ill-fated aircraft, about three dozen are expected to be from Kerala, most of them from Kasaragod, Wayanad and Kannur districts, for whom the Mangalore airport offers a convenient link to the Gulf.

Chief Minister Achuthanandan on Saturday offered all possible help to the kin of the passengers from his state who died in the Air India Express crash in Mangalore.

"It is a shocking incident. The state government will do all possible help to the victims and their families," the chief minister said.

"It is not ascertained that how many Malayalees died in the crash. According to our information, there were at least 50 passengers from Kerala on the flight," P. Karunakaran, the MP from Kasargod constituency that neighbours Mangalore, said, adding most of the charred bodies of the victims could not be identified.

Karunakaran told IANS that many of the Malayalees on board were from the north Kerala districts of Kasargod and Kannur.

Karunakaran, who is also deputy leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist in the Lok Sabha, expressed satisfaction over the efforts being made by the central government and Karnataka government to give relief to the victims and their families.

He also demanded a high-level probe into the accident.

Kerala on Saturday declared a two-day period of mourning for the crash victims.

—With inputs from IANS