Anguish at Bangladesh hospital after military jet crashes into school
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The mother of an injured student (centre) weeping at a hospital following the Air Force training jet crash into a school in Dhaka, on July 21.
PHOTO: AFP
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Dhaka - Sirens wailed as ambulances delivered charred bodies of children to a Dhaka hospital on July 21 – victims of a military jet crash that killed at least 19 people, most of them young students.
In Bangladesh’s deadliest aviation accident in decades, a training aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed into a school campus
Grief hung heavy over the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute, where many of the more than 150 injured victims were rushed for treatment.
Mr Tofazzal Hossain, 30, broke down in tears upon learning that his young cousin had been killed.
“We frantically searched for my cousin in different hospitals,” he said.
“He was an eighth grader. Finally, we found his body.”
The Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft crashed moments after students were let out of class at 1pm at Milestone School and College.
The well-known private school offers education to kindergarten children as well as senior secondary students.
Student Shafiur Rahman Shafi, 18, told AFP: “We have two playgrounds – one for the senior students and one for the juniors.
“We were on the playground for the seniors. There were two fighter planes... Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground).
“It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire, and the army reached the spot later.”
‘Helping the children’
The Dhaka hospital’s joint director, Mr Mohammad Maruf Islam, said most of the injured were aged between eight and 14.
Of the 51 patients brought to the facility, at least 20 were critically hurt, he said.
Mr Monsur Helal, 46, waited grimly as his wife Mahrin – a coordinator at the school – lay unconscious on life support.
“Mahrin was helping the children out of the classroom when the plane suddenly crashed near her,” he said.
“She was able to speak with me briefly, but now she is unresponsive.”
Outside the hospital’s intensive care unit, grieving and tearful mothers comforted one another, sharing harrowing stories of how they found their children.
Dozens of volunteers lined up at the hospital, ready to donate blood.
Bangladesh’s interim government led by caretaker leader Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on July 22.
The country’s deadliest-ever aviation disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board. AFP
