A Bangladesh air force jet crashes into a school in Dhaka, killing at least 25 people
DHAKA Bangladesh AP A Bangladesh air force training aircraft crashed into a school in the nation s capital Monday afternoon killing the pilot and other people preponderance of whom were students functionaries mentioned The crash caused a fire that left the two-story building in Dhaka smoldering Administrators reported people mostly students and numerous with burns were rescued and taken from the scene in helicopters ambulances motorized rickshaws and in the arms of firefighters and parents Twenty deaths were published initially and five died of their injuries overnight Doctors explained late Monday that the condition of about two dozen injured remained critical The Chinese-made F- BGI training aircraft experienced a technical malfunction moments after takeoff at p m and the pilot attempted to divert the plane to a less populated area before crashing into the campus of Milestone School and College according to a comment from the military A large number of relatives waited overnight at a specialized burn hospital for bodies of their loved ones Around midnight Mohammed Abdur Rahim was looking for his cousin Afia Akter in a hospital We could not find my cousin She is missing Doctors here have inquired us to go to other hospitals he described The Associated Press Students declared the school s buildings trembled violently followed by a big explosion that sent them running for safety A desperate scene soon unfolded at the crash site as panicked relatives searched for loved ones Screams filled the air at a nearby hospital The Milestone school is in Dhaka s Uttara neighborhood about an -kilometer -mile drive from the A K Khandaker air force base The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes The pilot Flight Lt Mohammed Toukir Islam made every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location the military reported adding that it would investigate the cause of the crash It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in modern memory In another F- training jet crashed outside Dhaka killing its pilot who had ejected after he discovered a technical issue The executive informed a day of mourning Tuesday with flags to fly at half-staff across the country Mosammat Sagorika who scored four goals Monday to defeat Nepal in an under women s South Asian soccer championship match dedicated the country s win to the crash casualties A large number of people have died and a large number of are injured So we all are sad the -year-old Sagorika recounted reporters At the crash site Monday afternoon a father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms A mother cried out having detected her younger child but desperately searched for her older one Another father described his feeling of helplessness while waiting to learn the fate of his daughter The plane crashed on the building where my daughter was My wife called me but I was praying so I could not pick up Jewel who goes by one name explained at the scene When I came here I saw there was a huge fire There was a dead body of a child Luckily his daughter was safe he declared but he saw multiple other children suffering from burns Students also scrambled to see what had happened We fought with the crowd and the soldiers to get close to the crash site in our school announced Estiak Elahi Khan who is in the th grade What I saw I can t describe that that s terrible Doctors at Uttara Adhunik Hospital disclosed more than students numerous between the ages of and were transferred to a special hospital for burn casualties By Monday evening rescuers continued to scour the debris searching for bodies A crane was being used to remove debris Bangladesh s interim leader Muhammad Yunus also pledged an review and he expressed his deep sorrow over the heartbreaking accident He called it a moment of deep national grief Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed shock and sadness Our hearts go out to the bereaved families Modi noted in a post on X India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all manageable endorsement and assistance Rafiqa Taha a trainee who was not present at the time of the crash declared by phone that the school with particular students offers classes from elementary grades through high school I was terrified watching videos on TV the -year-old explained My God It s my school Associated Press journalists Al-emrun Garjon and Rafiqul Islam Mithu contributed to the analysis Source
