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, the airline and police said, and India’s federal health minister said that “many people” were killed.
At least 30 bodies have been recovered from a building at the site of the crash, rescue personnel at the site said.
More people were trapped inside, the rescuers said.
The plane was headed to Britain’s Gatwick Airport, Air India said, while police officers said it 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 per cent to 80 per cent of the area and will clear the rest soon,” a senior police officer told reporters.
The 242 people included 217 adults and 11 children, a source said. Of them, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven were Portuguese, and one was Canadian, Air India said.
