Dhaka: A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed atop a school building here Monday, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens, officials said.
The incident took place at Dhaka’s Uttara area. The aircraft crashed into the Milestone School and College campus.
“An F-7 BGI training aircraft took off at 1:06 pm today and crashed into the college campus soon after,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
“Our team has recovered one body. The Air Force has rescued four people with injuries and taken them away,” bdnews24 quoted Lima Khanam, duty officer at the Fire Service Central Control Room, as saying.
The identity of the deceased is yet to be confirmed. There was no information on the pilot.
The plane crashed with a big bang and immediately caught fire, a fire service official said.
According to police, firefighting units, ambulances, and air force helicopters rushed to the scene soon after the crash.
A teacher of the school said that dozens of ambulances were carrying the wounded to nearby hospitals.
“The plane fell on the gate and crashed nearby. Classes were in session when the plane crashed with students inside. The injured are being taken out one by one,” Shah Bulbul, a Milestone School and College spokesman, was quoted as saying by bdnews24.
According to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper, over 50 people have been taken to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery following the crash.
Their identities were not immediately known, but most of them are students, it said.
PTI
