At least 20 people, including the pilot, were killed and 171 other people were injured as a Bangladesh Air Force jet crashed into a building of Milestone School and College in the capital鈥檚 Uttara area on Monday, said the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate.
Most of the victims are the primary-level schoolchildren, as they were in classrooms during the crash.
The Bangladesh Army, the Bangladesh Air Force, the police, the Rapid Action Battalion, the Armed Police Battalion, the Border Guard Bangladesh, and the Fire Service and Civil Defence conducted a joint rescue drive on the spot.
The fire service in a message in the evening said that they had completed their rescue operation at 8:30pm.
Helicopters and ambulances were used to carry the injured to different hospitals, including Combined Military Hospital, National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, and Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital in the capital. 聽
A high-level inquiry committee from the Air Force has been formed to investigate the reason behind the accident, according to the ISPR.
The government, following the incident, declared a one-day state mourning to be observed today, said a circular issued by the Cabinet Division on Monday.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin and chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, in separate messages, expressed condolences over the incident.
The FT-7 BGI fighter jet of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed due to a technical malfunction it faced immediately after taking off from BAF Base Bashar in Dhaka鈥檚 Kurmitola at 1:06pm on Monday as part of a regular training, said the ISPR release.
The Fire Service and Civil Defence in a press release said that they got the news of the incident at 1:18pm and their first unit reached the spot at 1:22pm.
According to the ISPR, Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam attempted to steer the aircraft away from densely populated areas to prevent the accident and major damage.
The details of the mechanical glitch would be informed later, the ISPR also said.
Unfortunately, the ISPR said, the aircraft crashed into a two-storey building of the Milestone School and College at Diabari in an unexpected accident.
Till 9:00pm, according to the ISPR, 20 people were killed and 171 other people were injured in the accident.
While talking to the journalists near the spot, Fire Service and Civil Defence director general Brigadier General Muhammad Jahed Kamal said that FT-7 BGI fighter jet made a crash landing at the two-storied building of the Milestone School and College Diabari North branch at about 1:00pm.
鈥楾he building houses classrooms for class III and IV students on the ground floor and class II, class V, principal鈥檚 room, and meeting room on the first floor of the two-storey building,鈥� he said.
The director general also said that the school hours ended during the incident and some students and their guardians gathered near the teachers鈥� room then.
The ISPR said that the injured victims were taken to the Combined Military Hospital and nearby hospitals by the Air Force鈥檚 ambulances and helicopters.
According to the ISPR, the number of deaths and injured people are 12 and 17 respectively in Combined Military Hospital, two and 70 respectively in the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, one and 60 respectively in Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital, zero and eight respectively in Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, one and three respectively in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, two and one respectively in Kurmitola General Hospital, two and 11 respectively in Lubana General Hospital and Cardiac Center, zero and one respectively in Uttara Crescent Hospital were.
Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital assistant director ASM Raquibul Islam said that two were brought dead to their hospital and they provided primary treatment to 162 other injured victims.
Special assistant to the chief adviser for the health and family welfare ministry, Sayedur Rahman, said in a press briefing at the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit on Monday evening that seven charred bodies, kept in the burn unit, were yet to be identified.
He added that the bodies would be identified through DNA tests.
At least nine injured victims were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit at the burn unit, he said.
According to the ministry, at least 17 people, mostly children, were killed in the incident, Sayedur said, adding that 88 injured people were currently undergoing treatment at different hospitals.
Burn unit director Nasir Uddin said that more than 50 per cent of the 48 injured undergoing treatments at the unit were in critical condition.
Soon after the crash, videos started to surface on social media where huge black smoke was seen billowing from the damaged building.
Many injured school students were seen being taken by the ambulances with burnt school dresses.
At around 3:00pm, the members of different security agencies, especially the Bangladesh Army, the APBN and the Bangladesh Air Forces, were seen cordoning Gareeb-e-Newaz Avenue, the road near the educational institute.
Desperate searches by the guardians were seen at the spot.
Some parents were seen crying as the volunteers and security services were taking them near the school gate.
A mother was crying while holding her Class VI daughter who was present at the school during the accident.
The school students who were not injured were seen crying in fear and seeing the pain of their injured fellows.
Several thousand people gathered near the spot, adjacent buildings and roads, while the members of the law enforcement agencies and volunteers were seen struggling to contain the crowd.
Announcements for donating blood were also seen at the spot.
Several hundred volunteers, including students from educational institutions including universities, Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic volunteers, Bangladesh National Cadet Core, Road safety Movement, students of Milestone College and other educational institutions, were seen performing duties there.
Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies president retired Major General ANM Muniruzzaman said that it would be better to choose barren places for training for the aircraft.
鈥楾he fighter jets of J-7 series are old and not used by most countries,鈥� he told 抖阴精品.聽
Bangladesh bought several FT-7 BGI of J-7 series aircraft from China in 2013 and the crashed fighter jet was one of them, said a senior Bangladesh Air Force official.
According to the official, Pakistan, Namibia, Myanmar, Nigeria and Sri Lanka operate the variant of Chinese J-7 series.
On November 23, 2018, BAF Wing Commander Arif Ahmed Dipu was killed when his F-7 BG crashed in Tangail鈥檚 Madhupur Upazila on a training mission.
Nine units of the fire services and 186 fire-fighters and three platoons of BGB were deployed in the rescue operations.
The army chief, principal staff officer, and senior officials of the armed forces, air force and army visited.聽
The school authorities, hospitals and the military have opened separate hotline numbers for tracing the missing students.
