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The Independent
2 days ago
- The Independent
Hero teachers killed trying to save children from Bangladesh fighter jet blast
At least three teachers died trying to get young children to safety after a fighter jet crashed into a school in Bangladesh 's capital on Monday, killing at least 31 people in one of the worst aviation disasters in the country's history. So far 25 school pupils, most of them under the age of 12, have been reported killed in the crash which saw a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft come down on top of a school building in Dhaka 's densely populated Uttara neighbourhood. The members of the school's faculty who were killed include Mahrein Chowdhury, a 46-year-old school administrator, sustained 80 per cent burns while trying to escort students out of the Hyder Ali Hall building at the school when the F-7 BGI crashed into the school, about 12 minutes after its takeoff from a nearby military facility. Chowdhury was escorting students to meet their parents when the aircraft crashed into the gate of the building. Despite being severely burned herself, Chowdhury helped take 20 students to safety. Hours later, she succumbed to her injuries in hospital. "She didn't get out first from her building when it caught fire, instead tried to get as many students out but ended up suffering 100 per cent burns, said her brother, Munaf Mojib Chowdhury. He recalled his elder sister as a mother-like figure who had helped to raise him. Mahrein Chowdhury was buried on Tuesday in her family graveyard beside her parents. Two other teachers are known to have succumbed to their burn injuries, a senior teacher who was present in the next building at the time of the disaster, told The Independent, though the overall death toll from the crash has continued to rise throughout Tuesday. The crash took place shortly after 1pm when students were leaving exams and teachers were busy checking papers, according to the senior teacher, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the school. He recalled hearing a loud sound – comparing it to a bomb blast – when the aircraft first crashed into a school building. "The school is near an air force base, so we are used to the noise of fighter aircraft, but this was extraordinarily loud. At first glance, I couldn't spot anything, but seconds later, a thick stream of smoke started coming out of the building," he recalled. The senior teacher saw dozens of injured students – mostly those with minor injuries – running toward the school's medical room on the lower floor, while many other pupils were trapped under debris on the second floor. Army personnel stationed nearby rushed to the school as the fire from the blast intensified and spread rapidly about 15 minutes after the crash, leading to more fatalities. Ambulances and a helicopter arrived at the scene shortly after. "As the fire spread, we were asked to move toward the playing field. Everyone was evacuated to the grounds to make space for the ambulance and the helicopter to take the pupils to the nearest hospitals," the senior teacher said. "Everyone who could help, including teachers, staff and pupils, jumped in to the rescue without thinking twice." Doctors said late on Monday that about two dozen people remained in a critical condition, out of a total 165 injured. A blood donation camp has been opened at a specialised burns hospital where most of the injured were being treated. Twenty bodies have been handed over to their families, with some needing DNA matching after they were charred beyond recognition. Many relatives waited overnight at the burns hospital while identification processes were carried out. Nasima Begum was among the mothers whose children were admitted to the hospital after suffering severe burns in the crash. Her son, who studies in grade seven, was playing when the crash happened, Ms Begum told The Independent. "He's completely burned," she said. "It has been more than 24 hours, his state is critical. The doctors are not saying anything positive. This is the second hospital we have had to take him," she said, as she prayed to Allah to save her son. Rubina Akter said her son Raiyan Toufiq had a miraculous escape after his shirt caught fire when he was on a staircase. "He sprinted to the ground floor and jumped on the grass to douse it," she told Reuters. "He tore his shirt and vest inside which saved him from severe burns." Another student who had already left the classroom after finishing his exam told BBC Bangla: "My best friend, the one I was in the exam hall with, he died right in front of my eyes." Rescue workers continued to scour the charred buildings for debris on Tuesday as distressed residents of the area looked on. Abul Hossain mourned his nine-year-old daughter after saying his final goodbye on Monday night. "I took her to school yesterday morning like every day. I had no idea it would be the last time I would be seeing her," he said. The pilot, Flight Lt Mohammed Toukir Islam, who died in the crash, made "every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location," the military said. The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a "technical malfunction" moments after takeoff from the AK Khandaker air force base at 1.06 pm local time on Monday, the military added. It was the pilot's first solo flight as he was completing his training course. It remained unclear if he managed to eject before the jet hit the building. The Bangladesh air force said it has launched a formal investigation. The government declared Tuesday was a day of mourning, with flags at half-mast and special prayers at all places of worship as hundreds of students protested near the site of the crash. The Milestone school is located about 11km from the air force base in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes. The protesting students transparency over the numbers and identities of the dead and injured, compensation for their families, and an immediate halt to the use of "outdated and unsafe" training aircraft by the Bangladesh Air Force. They chanted slogans and accused security officials of beating them and manhandling teachers. The students angrily confronted two senior government advisers who arrived to visit the scene, forcing them to take cover for six hours inside the school campus before additional security forces arrived and escorted them out. Scores of students suffered injuries after police charged them with batons after they broke through security barricades and entered the Bangladesh Secretariat complex, elsewhere across the capital. Security fired tear gas and used stun grenades to disperse the crowd. Monday's plane crash was the deadliest aviation incident in the Bangladeshi capital in decades. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem. Bangladesh's F-7 is a modern variant of China's Chengdu F-7, itself modelled on the Soviet MiG-21. While considered outdated by global standards, it remains in service due to its cost-effectiveness and suitability for pilot training and limited combat roles. Its production ceased after China delivered the last of 16 units of F-7 BGIs to Bangladesh in 2013. The incident comes as neighbour India is still grappling with the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade after an Air India plane crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad city in Gujarat last month, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground.
CNN
2 days ago
- CNN
Distraught students demand answers after plane crash turned Bangladesh school into 'death trap'
Hundreds of students gathered outside the smoldering remains of a school in the Bangladeshi capital on Tuesday to demand answers after a military jet slammed into the campus, killing dozens of children. An ordinary school day turned into terror on Monday when a Bangladesh Air Force jet suffered a mid-air mechanical fault and ploughed into the Milestone School and College in Dhaka, engulfing the two-story building in flames and smoke. Young students were finishing up afternoon classes and parents had gathered outside the gates to greet their children when the aircraft hit, killing at least 27 people - including 25 children - in the country's deadliest air incident in recent memory. Some 171 others were left injured, many with severe burns. That most of the dead and injured are young children has compounded the tragedy that shocked the nation of 171 million people and sent the country into national mourning. As police and air force personnel worked at the scene to retrieve parts of the crashed plane on Tuesday, the gathered crowd began shouting at officials, with some students telling CNN they believe the death toll may be higher than officially released. The government has denied it is withholding information about the casualties of the crash, state media BSS News reported, citing the Chief Adviser's press wing. It added that the identities of those killed are still being verified. At the crash site on Tuesday, witnesses were still visibly shaken by the horror they had seen the day before. 'We saw scattered parts of different bodies, of children, guardians,' Mohammad Imran Hussein, a lecturer in the school's English department, told CNN. 'I cannot express everything in words,' he said, emotionally distressed and struggling to speak. Hussein said he was in a school building across the playground when the jet crashed. 'The sound was really intolerable. And I looked around to see what happened, I saw the tail of the plane. I saw a huge flame of fire,' he said. Milestone College has a kindergarten, an elementary school and a high school on its campus. The building destroyed in the crash was one of about 20 housing almost 100 students between the ages of six and 13, Hussein said. 'It's like this building was turned into a death trap. It was horrible, totally horrible,' said Sheik Rameen, 21, a student at the high school. 'I saw a lot of children, I tried to save their lives,' he told CNN at the site. 'I saw a burnt child seek help but nobody came to help them.' The FT-7 jet was on a routine training mission when it crashed soon after take off at around 1:18 p.m. local time on Monday (3:18 a.m. EST) after a mechanical fault, according to BSS News, citing the country's armed forces. The plane's pilot, who has been named as Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam, made 'every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,' the military said. The F-7 BGI is the final and most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group. Reuters reported that Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. Images from the crash site showed parts of the mangled wreckage of the jet lodged into the side of the scorched school as emergency crews continued their operations. Following the crash, emergency crews and families rushed the injured to hospitals in the capital where doctors raced to treat severe burns caused by the inferno. The hospitals quickly became overwhelmed with frantic relatives desperate for news of their loved ones. Most of the injured at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burns unit are children under the age of 12, resident surgeon Harunur Rashid told Reuters. Video shows crowds waiting outside the hospital and waiting rooms packed with anxious families. Bangladesh's interim government leader Muhammad Yunus said on Monday that, 'I have no words. I don't know how to begin.' 'None of us ever imagined it. It wasn't within anyone's expectations. But we had to suddenly accept this unbelievable reality,' Yunus said in a video message. Yunus said the training aircraft 'crashed and fell upon these innocent children' and many were 'burned to death in the fire.' 'What answer can we give to their parents? What can we possibly say to them? We can't even answer ourselves,' he said. CNN's Aishwarya S Iyer contributed reporting.
CTV News
2 days ago
- General
- CTV News
A Bangladesh Air Force training jet crashes into a school in Dhaka and kills at least 25 people
Firemen check the wreckage of a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft that crashed onto a school campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon) DHAKA, Bangladesh — A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school in Dhaka, the country's capital, shortly after takeoff on Monday afternoon, killing the pilot and 24 other people, most of whom were students, officials said. The jet crashed and caught fire, leaving also 171 people, mostly students, injured. They were rescued from the school's smoldering two-story building, officials said, many with burns, taken away in helicopters, ambulances, motorized rickshaws and the arms of firefighters and parents. Initially, reports after the crash said 20 people died. Five died of their injuries overnight. Doctors said late Monday that the condition of about two dozen injured remained critical. The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a 'technical malfunction' moments after takeoff at 1:06 p.m. local time, and the pilot attempted to divert the plane to a less populated area before crashing into the campus of Milestone School and College, according to a statement from the military. Many relatives waited overnight at a specialized burn hospital for bodies of their loved ones. Around midnight, Mohammed Abdur Rahim was looking for his cousin Afia Akter in a hospital. 'We could not find my cousin. She is missing. Doctors here have asked us to go to other hospitals,' he told The Associated Press. Students said the school's buildings trembled violently, followed by a big explosion that sent them running for safety. A desperate scene soon unfolded at the crash site, as panicked relatives searched for loved ones. Screams filled the air at a nearby hospital. The Milestone school is located in Dhaka's Uttara neighborhood, about an 11 kilometres (7 miles) drive from the A.K. Khandaker air force base. The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes. The pilot, Flight Lt. Mohammed Toukir Islam, made 'every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,' the military said, adding that it would investigate the cause of the accident. It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem. The government announced a national day of mourning on Tuesday, with flags to fly at half-staff across the country. Mosammat Sagorika, who scored four goals on Monday to defeat Nepal in an under 20 women's South Asian soccer championship match, dedicated the country's win to the victims of the jet crash. 'Many people have died, and many are injured. So, we all are sad,' the 17-year-old Sagorika told reporters. At the crash site Monday afternoon, a father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms. A mother cried out, having found her younger child, but desperately searched for her older one. Another father described his feeling of helplessness while waiting to learn the fate of his daughter. 'The plane crashed on the building where my daughter was. My wife called me, but I was praying so I could not pick up,' Jewel, who goes by one name, said at the scene. 'When I came here I saw there was a huge fire. There was a dead body of a child.' Luckily, his daughter was safe, he said, but he saw many other children suffering from burns. Students also scrambled to see what had happened. 'We fought with the crowd and the soldiers to get close to the crash site in our school,' said Estiak Elahi Khan, who is in the 11th grade. 'What I saw I can't describe that ... that's terrible.' Doctors at Uttara Adhunik Hospital said more than 60 students, many between the ages of 12 and 16, were transferred to a special hospital for burn victims. By Monday evening, rescuers continued to scour the debris, searching for bodies. A crane was being used to remove debris. Bangladesh's interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, also pledged an investigation, and he expressed his deep sorrow over the 'heartbreaking accident.' He called it 'a moment of deep national grief.' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed shock and sadness. 'Our hearts go out to the bereaved families,' Modi said in a post on X. 'India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance.' Rafiqa Taha, a student who was not present at the time of the crash, said by phone that the school, with some 2,000 students, offers classes from elementary grades through high school. 'I was terrified watching videos on TV,' the 16-year-old said. 'My God! It's my school.' By Julhas Alam Associated Press videographer Al-emrun Garjon contributed from Dhaka.
Japan Times
2 days ago
- General
- Japan Times
At least 20 killed as Bangladesh fighter jet crashes into school
A Bangladeshi fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 170 in the country's deadliest aviation accident in decades. Many of the victims were young students who had just been let out of class when a Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College. An AFP photographer at the scene saw fire and rescue officials taking away the injured students on stretchers, while army personnel helped clear the mangled wreckage. A military statement said 20 people were killed, including the pilot, and 171 others were injured when the jet crashed following a mechanical failure. An 18-year-old student, Shafiur Rahman Shafi, said he heard a huge blast that felt like an earthquake. "There were two fighter planes ... Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground)," he said. "It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then, it caught fire," he added. The well-known private school offers education to children from kindergarten through to senior secondary. Most of the injured were age between 8 and 14, said Mohammad Maruf Islam, joint director of Dhaka's National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute where many victims were treated. Grieving relatives of the victims thronged the hospital, while dozens of volunteers lined up to donate blood. Tofazzal Hossain, 30, broke down in tears on learning that his young cousin had been killed. "We frantically searched for my cousin in different hospitals," Hossain said. "He was an eighth grader at the school. Finally, we found his body." Mohammad Sayedur Rahman, a Health and Family Welfare official, said at least seven bodies remained unidentified. The military said the pilot, flight lieutenant Towkir Islam, was on a routine training mission when the jet "reportedly encountered a mechanical failure." "The exact cause remains under investigation," it said in a statement. The pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas but, "despite his best efforts," crashed into the two-story school building, the military added. It was Towkir's first solo flight, his uncle Motakabbir said. "His mother was nervous yet happy and had been eagerly waiting for the completion of her son's first solo flight," said Motakabbir, who uses only one name. Shuvra Ghosh, the aunt of one of the injured students, said her 8-year-old niece was rescued by a teacher who broke open a window to bring her out. "We are mentally traumatized," she said. The interim government of Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday. Yunus expressed "deep grief and sorrow" over the incident in a post on X. "The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers, and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable," he said. "This is a moment of profound pain for the nation." The crash was the worst aviation accident in the country in several decades. The deadliest ever disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board. Last month, a commercial aircraft crashed in neighboring India, killing 260 people. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "deeply shocked and saddened at the loss of lives" in Dhaka. Relations between the neighbors have been strained since protesters in Bangladesh last year ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, an old ally of New Delhi. "India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance," Modi wrote on X.
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Bangladesh Air Force plane crashes into school campus in Dhaka, killing at least 20 people, officials say
Dhaka, Bangladesh — A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school campus in the capital, Dhaka, shortly after takeoff on Monday, killing at least 20 people including the pilot and injuring more than 100, officials said. According to the military and a fire official, the Chinese-made F-7 BGI aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College, in the Uttara neighborhood, in the afternoon as students were attending classes. The military said the jet took off at 1:06 p.m. local time and crashed soon after, catching fire immediately. The cause was not immediately clear. Local media indicated most of the injured in Dhaka on Monday were students. Relatives panicked at the scene as rescuers, using tricycle rickshaws or whatever was available, transported the injured to local hospitals. A desperate scene unfolded after the crash. Local residents and rescuers carried wounded students on their laps, while worried parents ran frantically. One father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms. A mother cried out, having found her younger child, but desperately searching for her elder. Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus pledged an investigation into the crash, expressing his deep sorrow over the "heartbreaking accident" at Milestone School and College. In a statement, he lamented the "irreparable" loss suffered by "Air Force personnel, students, parents, teachers, staff, and others," calling it "a moment of deep national grief." Rafiqa Taha, a student who was not present at the time of the crash, told The Associated Press by phone that the school, with some 2,000 students, offers classes from elementary to 12th grade. "I was terrified watching videos on TV," the 16-year-old said. "My God! It's my school." It was the deadliest airplane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory, though a passenger plane owned by a joint Bangladeshi-U.S. firm crashed in Nepal in 2018, bursting into flames after careening off the runway and killing dozens of people on board.
