DHAKA: At least 19 people, most of them reportedly children, were killed and around 164 injured when a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school building in capital Dhaka Monday afternoon.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media division of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, stated that the pilot of the crashed training aircraft was among the 19 people who lost their lives in the accident.
According to the ISPR, the Bangladesh Air Force's F-7 BGI training aircraft took off at 1:06 pm, local time on Monday and crashed into the Milestone School and College building in Dhaka's Uttara around 1.30 PM.
"As you all know, today an F-7 BJI fighter aircraft of the Air Force made a crash landing at approximately 1:00 pm in the two-story school building of our Milestone School and College's Uttara branch. On the first floor of this two-story building, there were classes for third and fourth graders. On the second floor, there were classes for second and fifth graders. There was a meeting room for the principal's office next to it. A coaching class was in progress, " Brigadier General Mohammad Zahed Kamal, the Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence, was quoted as saying by Bangladesh's leading Bengali daily, Prothom Alo.