At least 27 people have been killed, mostly children as a Bangladesh Air Force training plane crashed into a college and school campus in the capital city Dhaka on Monday, fire services officials said.
According to a doctor at the National Institution of Burn and Plastic Surgery, more than 50 people, including children and adults, suffered burns.
The incident occurred at the Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s northern area of Uttara, officials said.
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In a statement the military’s public relations department said, “Bangladesh Air Force’s F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed in Uttara. The aircraft took off at 13:06 (0706 GMT).”
Videos circulating online showing 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, Reuters TV visuals showed.
Bidhan Sarker, head of the burn unit at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, said, “A third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others, aged 12, 14 and 40, were admitted to the hospital.”
“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,” said Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school.
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 added.
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The tragedy came a little over a month after an Air India plane crashed on top of a medical college dorm near India’s Ahmedabad city, killing 241 of the 242 passengers on board and 19 on the ground, marking the world’s worst aviation accident in ten years.
