Heartbroken relatives of the two men missing in the East Village gas explosion left the city Medical Examiner’s Office in tears Sunday following the discovery of the two bodies in the rubble.
Loved ones of Nicholas Figueroa — who was on a date in the sushi restaurant where the powerful blast occurred — confirmed his identity, with a family spokeswoman saying that “his body is all intact” and “nothing burned him.”
But the other body, believed to be that of busboy Moises Locon, was too mangled to be shown to his relatives and will have to be identified through dental records or DNA testing, a law enforcement source said.
Earlier in the day, Figueroa’s family kept a vigil at the disaster scene, with brother Neal Figueroa, 22, holding out hope that Nicholas, 23, the eldest of four brothers, was somehow still alive.
“That’s not him, Dad, that’s not him!” Neal told his father by phone after the first body was found around 1 p.m. “I’m going to bring him home to you, Dad.”
Hours later, however, Neal sobbed loudly as he and his weeping mom clutched each other while leaving the ME’s Office.
Another brother, his chest heaving as he bawled, had to be held up by a cousin who guided him to a waiting NYPD van.
“It’s very hard for the family. They’re all distraught. They’re going home to prepare funeral arrangements,” family spokeswoman Awilda Cordero said.
Three brothers of Locon, 27, wiped tears from their eyes as they walked out of the ME’s Office about 45 minutes later.
Later, at the family home in Queens, his brother Alfredo, 30, said, “We are sad. Very, very sad. We don’t know yet if that’s him. I just want to know right now.”
Moises comes from a family of nine in Guatemala. He was described as a hard worker, who was planning to move back home and marry his childhood sweetheart, Susana Matzar.
“They were raised together, so when he came to New York to live and raise money, she kept in contact with him,” Alfredo said. “So he told her he was going to come back.”
Figueroa, of East Harlem, and Locon, of Elmhurst, Queens, were reported missing inside the Sushi Park restaurant at 121 Second Ave., which blew up at about 3:15 p.m. Thursday.
Sources have told The Post that authorities suspect the cause was an illegally tapped gas line in the basement and that Bronx contractor Diber Kukic, who was injured in the explosion, was under investigation.
FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro said cadaver dogs located the bodies, the first of which was found about 20 feet from the entrance to Sushi Park at about 1:10 p.m.
The second body was found about 20 feet farther back at about 3:40 p.m., he said.
A law enforcement source said Figueroa had ID cards on him when he was found.
Authorities don’t believe there are any more victims in the ruins.
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram, Frank Rosario, Daniel Prendergast, Bruce Golding and Kenneth Garger