More than 100 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India’s Western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday with the toll expected to climb.
According to a British newspaper, The Telegraph, more than 100 bodies were brought to a local hospital in Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state.
India’s union health minister said that “many people” were killed but the exact number of casualties has not been announced.
“At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates,” Air India said on X.
The plane was heading to Gatwick airport in the United Kingdom, Air India said.
Local Police officers said the passenger jet crashed in a civilian area near the airport.
“The building on which it has crashed is a doctor’s hostel… we have cleared almost 70% to 80% of the area and will clear the rest soon,” a senior police officer told reporters.
Of 242 people on board 217 adults and 11 children. They included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian citizen, Air India said.
According to Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger planes in service.
Britain is working with Indian authorities to urgently establish the facts around the Air India plane crash and to provide support to those involved , the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement on its website.
An Indian channel showed footage when the plane take off over a residential area and then disappeared from the screen before a huge cloud of fire rose into the sky from beyond the houses.
Air Traffic Control at Ahmedabad airport said the aircraft departed at 1.39 p.m. (0809 GMT) from runway 23. It gave a “Mayday” call, signaling an emergency, but thereafter it got no response from the aircraft.
Flightradar24 also confirmed that it received the last signal from the aircraft seconds after it took off.
This story is being updated.
