Plane came down in poor district creating ‘huge explosion’ and fireball in the middle of the night

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Seventeen people were killed when a small military plane crashed into a residential area in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, officials have said.

The crash created a fireball that lit up the night sky and terrified residents after the plane came down in a poor village in the garrison city that is home to the army’s headquarters.

“We have received 17 dead bodies including 12 civilians and five crew members,” said local rescue spokesman Farooq Butt, adding that a further 12 people had been injured in the accident near the capital, Islamabad.

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One resident said the crash happened around 2am on Tuesday. “I woke to the sound of a huge explosion. I stepped out of my house and saw huge flames and we rushed to the site,” said Mohammad Sadiq.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pakistan army officials visit the site of a plane crash an Rawalpindi. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“People were screaming. We tried to help them but the flames were too high and the fire too intense, so we could not do anything. The dead includes seven members of one family and most of them were burned to death.”

Another resident, Ghulam Khan, said he heard the plane as it went over his house and the aircraft appeared to be on fire before it crashed. “The sound was so scary.”

The military’s information wing said the plane was on a routine training mission when the accident occurred. Rescue officials extinguished the fire and moved the injured to hospital.

Rescue workers could be seen combing through the smouldering site, gathering debris and inspecting the scene while ambulances rushed to the area. Military officials cordoned off the crash site while a crowd of residents stood nearby, some of them sobbing.

There are frequent plane and helicopter crashes in Pakistan. In 2016 a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed en route from remote northern Pakistan to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.

The deadliest air disaster on Pakistani soil was in 2010 when an Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into the hills outside Islamabad while coming in to land, killing all 152 on board.