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More than 150 killed in Nigeria plane crash At least 147 killed in Nigeria plane crash
(about 2 hours later)
A plane carrying about 150 people has crashed in a densely populated neighbourhood of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, killing everyone on board. A passenger jet crashed into a crowded suburb of the Nigerian city of Lagos on Sunday killing all 147 passengers and crew.
Thousands of people crowded around a smouldering two-story tin-roofed building into which the Dana Air flight from Abuja to Lagos had plunged. The plane took off from Abuja and was due to land at Lagos airport when it crashed into a furniture workshop, then into residential buildings in the Agege area of the city and burst into flames. Government officials said that it was likely there were further casualties among the residents of the buildings damaged by the aircraft.
Nigeria's emergency services said there were likely more casualties on the ground. "We heard a huge explosion, and at first we thought it was a gas canister," said Timothy Akinyela, 50, a local newspaper reporter who was watching a football match with friends in a bar near the crash site in a residential street where tin-roofed houses line mud roads.
Police used truncheons to beat back the massed onlookers, trying to make a path for rescue services, but the crowd was so large that ambulances, sirens wailing, were unable to get through. Showing a video he had taken on his phone, he added: "Then there were some more explosions and everyone ran out. It was terrifying. There was confusion and shouting."
"This crowd is crazy. The rescuers can't even get access," said a local motorbike taxi driver, who said he had felt a huge thud as the aircraft struck. Crowds of residents surrounded the crash site, delaying emergency services from searching for survivors.
The plane burst into flames after hitting the building in the Agege suburb of the city, not far from Lagos's Murtala Muhammed airport, witnesses said. Yushau Shuaib, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, said more casualties on the ground were likely but the number was unknown. He said officials were still trying to get an official manifest on the flight.
"We heard a huge explosion, and at first we thought it was a gas canister," said Timothy Akinyela, 50, a local newspaper reporter who was watching a football match with friends in a bar near the crash site. Sometimes for flights in Nigeria paper tickets are issued without a computer record. Government officials gave various figures for the number of people on the airplane. One said 147, another 153.
"Then there were some more explosions afterwards and everyone ran out. It was terrifying. There was confusion and shouting," he added. The aircraft was operated by Dana Air which normally flies Boeing MD83 aircraft.
Smoke billowed from the windows and roof of the building that was hit. Locals climbed on top of walls to try to look in. Bits of the plane were scattered on the muddy ground. The nose of the plane was embedded in the three-storey apartment building, damaging only part of the structure. Fires smouldered as several thousand people looked on. A group of men stood atop the landing gear that was smoking and took pictures with their mobile phones.
Lagos's international airport is a hub for west Africa, and 2.3 million passengers passed through it in 2009. The government says it has full radar coverage of Nigeria, but power cuts are common and generators sometimes fail at airports, causing radar screens to go blank. The presidency said in a statement the crash "has sadly plunged the nation into further sorrow on a day when Nigerians were already in grief over the loss of many other innocent lives in the church bombing in Bauchi state", referring to a suicide bombing which killed 10 people.