A Bangladesh air force training jet has crashed into a school campus in the Capital, Dhaka, killing 20 and injuring more than 170.
Local media reported that the plane crashed at about 1.30pm on Monday. Footage from Milestone School and College in the suburb of Uttara showed a huge fire and thick smoke, after the aircraft slammed into a two-storey building.
“Bangladesh Air Force’s F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed in Uttara. The aircraft took off at 13:06 [07:06 GMT],” the Bangladesh military’s public relations team said.
F-7 BGI is a light, “multi-role” fighter aircraft manufactured by the Chinese Chengdu Corporation.
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An Armed Forces statement cited by BBC, said the Pilot, Flight Lieutenant Md. Taukir Islam, had tried to navigate the jet to a less populated area after the mechanical fault occurred.
An investigation committee has been formed to look into the incident, the statement added.
The crash of the Air Force’s F-7 plane marks the deadliest aviation incident in Bangladesh since the 1984 crash of a plane travelling from Chattogram to Dhaka killed all 49 people on board.
Many of the victims were students who had just been let out of school when the plane crashed.
Al Jazeera reported that the plane crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College, a private school in the northern Dhaka neighbourhood of Uttara.
According to the information available on the school’s website, there are 6,000 enrolled students at Milestones.
Seventeen of the casualties were children, the health ministry said. The age range for students attending the school is between four and 18 years old. Victims have been treated at seven hospitals across the city, the health ministry said.
Last month, an Air India passenger plane crashed into a medical college hostel in India’s Ahmedabad city, killing 241 of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground. Thee incident marked the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
Muhammad Yunus, the leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, said “necessary measures” would be taken to investigate the cause of the incident and “ensure all kinds of assistance”.
“This is a moment of deep sorrow for the nation. I wish the injured a speedy recovery and instruct all authorities, including the hospitals concerned, to deal with the situation with utmost importance,” he said in a post on X.
Bangladesh has announced a day of mourning on Tuesday, when the national flag will be flown at half-mast across the country.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
