Mostly students killed and more than 50 wounded as training aircraft crashes into campus in capital Dhaka.
At least 19 people have been killed as a Bangladesh air force training aircraft crashed into a college and school campus in capital Dhaka, a fire services official and local media reports said.
The F-7 BGI aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood at about 1pm (07:00 GMT), when students were taking tests or attending regular classes.
More than 50 people, including children and adults, were hospitalised with burns after the crash, a doctor at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery told reporters.
Videos of the aftermath of the crash showed a big fire near a lawn emitting a thick plume of smoke into the sky, as crowds watched from a distance.
Firefighters sprayed water on the mangled remains of the plane, which appeared to have rammed into the side of a building, damaging iron grills and creating a gaping hole in the structure.
“A third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others, aged 12, 14 and 40, were admitted to the hospital,” Bidhan Sarker, head of the burn unit at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, where some victims were taken, told the Reuters news agency.
Social media videos showed people screaming and crying as others tried to comfort them.
“When I was picking [up] my kids and went to the gate, I realised something came from behind … I heard an explosion. When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke,” Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school, told Reuters.
Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government, said “necessary measures” would be taken to investigate the cause of the accident and “ensure all kinds of assistance”.
“The loss suffered by the air force … students, parents, teachers and staff, and others in this accident is irreparable,” he said.
Yunus also announced that an emergency hotline has been activated at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in the wake of the crash.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society called for donations for those injured.
The incident came a little over a month after an Air India plane crashed on top of a medical college hostel in neighbouring India’s Ahmedabad city, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground, marking the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
