Latest news with #nationalmourning
News24
22-07-2025
- General
- News24
Grief, trauma, ‘profound pain for the nation' as 27 dead in Bangladesh fighter jet crash
Authorities updated the death toll from a jet crash to 27. A Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College. The interim government declared that Tuesday would be a day of national mourning. At least 27 people, mostly children, were killed after a Bangladeshi fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka, a government official said on Tuesday, updating an earlier toll of at least 20 dead. Most of the victims were schoolchildren who had just been let out of class when the Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College on Monday. The crash, which is the country's deadliest aviation accident in decades, also left more than 170 people injured. 'So far, 27 people have died. Among them, 25 are children and one is a pilot,' Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the chief adviser for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said. 'Seventy-eight people are being treated in different hospitals,' Rahman added. READ | At least 16 killed as Bangladesh fighter jet crashes into school The Bangladesh military on Monday had 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-storey school building, the military added. The interim government of Muhammad Yunus declared that Tuesday would be a day of national mourning. 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. Muhammad Yunus The usually bustling school was eerily quiet on Tuesday morning, with classes cancelled. 'Along with the children, the school has lost its life,' said teacher Shahadat Hossain, whose son narrowly escaped the crash. 'There are two swings in front of the affected building. During lunch breaks and after school, children play there. Even yesterday, around the time the plane crashed, students were on those swings,' the 45-year-old told AFP. Around 7 000 pupils are enrolled at the school, including Abul Bashar's sixth-grade son whose best friend was killed. 'He came out just two or three minutes before the accident occurred,' said Bashar. 'He couldn't sleep through the night and forced me to bring him to school this morning,' the father added, his son standing in silence. School authorities have collected bags, shoes, and identity cards of children from the site. Pahn Chakma, a senior police officer, said that armed forces personnel are still sweeping the area. 'They will hand over the place to the police later, and we will then collect evidence, including any human remains or belongings of students and others,' Chakma said. Air Force personnel on duty said the remnants of the fighter jet were removed on Monday night, but they are still scouring the site for evidence. 'I don't know how long it will take to return to normalcy, to relieve the children from this trauma,' teacher Hossain said. On Monday night, school authorities held prayers at the campus.
Reuters
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Students protest in Bangladesh after air force jet crash kills 31, mostly children
DHAKA, July 22 (Reuters) - National mourning turned to anger in Bangladesh on Tuesday as the death toll from a fighter jet crash into a school in Dhaka jumped to 31, sparking protests by hundreds of students against the interim government in a country gripped by instability. At least 25 of the dead were children, many under the age of 12, who were about to return home on Monday when the Chinese-manufactured F-7 BGI Bangladesh Air Force jet ploughed into Milestone School and College and burst into flames, trapping pupils in the fire and building debris. Their fellow students and others from nearby schools protested as two government officials visited the crash site, demanding justice and shouting, "Why did our brothers die? We demand answers!" Elsewhere in the capital, hundreds of protesting students, some of them waving sticks, broke through the main gate of the federal government secretariat, demanding the resignation of the education adviser, local TV footage showed. Police baton charged them and forced them out. Rescue workers continued to scour the charred buildings for debris on Tuesday as distressed residents of the area looked on. Some parents were inconsolable. "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," said Abul Hossain, breaking down as he spoke about his nine-year-old daughter, Nusrat Jahan Anika, killed in the crash. She was buried on Monday night. 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 said. "He tore his shirt and vest inside which saved him from severe burns." The jet had taken off from a nearby air base on a routine training mission, the military said, adding the plane experienced a mechanical failure and the pilot was among those killed. Although he tried to divert the aircraft away from populated areas, the jet crashed into the campus. On Tuesday, the military said in a statement that 31 people had died and 165 had been admitted to hospitals in the city. The health ministry later said 70 were still under treatment. The government announced a day of mourning, with flags at half-mast and special prayers at all places of worship. The protesting students called for those killed and injured to be named, for air force compensation to the families of those killed, the decommissioning of what they said were old and risky jets, and a changing of air force training procedures. A statement from the press office of Muhammad Yunus, the country's interim administrator, said that the government, the military, school and hospital authorities were working together to publish a list of victims. It also said the air force will be instructed to not operate training aircraft in populated areas. 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. Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. The Chengdu F-7 is the licence-built version of the Soviet era MiG-21. 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 last month, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground. Bangladesh has faced months of political uncertainty after then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country last August following weeks of deadly student protests. The interim government of Nobel laureate Yunus has promised to hold elections next year amid mounting demands from political parties to advance them.
CNN
22-07-2025
- 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.
Khaleej Times
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Bangladesh declares July 22 as day of mourning after Air Force jet crash kills 20
Bangladesh declared Tuesday (July 22) as a day of national mourning, following the country's deadliest aviation disaster in decades. A Bangladeshi Air Force jet on Monday (July 21) crashed into a school building in the capital, Dhaka, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 170. Muhammad Yunus, chief advisor of the interim government in Bangladesh, expressed 'deep grief and sorrow' over the tragedy. In a statement posted on X, he described the loss as 'irreparable,' extending condolences to the families of students, teachers, and Air Force personnel affected. "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 wrote. "This is a moment of profound pain for the nation," Yunus added. According to the military, the pilot was on a routine training flight when the aircraft "reportedly encountered a mechanical failure." Efforts were made to steer the jet away from densely populated areas, but "despite his best efforts," it crashed into the two-storey Milestone School and College. Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash, which marks the worst aviation tragedy since 1984, when a commercial flight from Chattogram to Dhaka went down, killing all 49 people on board. "The exact cause remains under investigation," the military said said in a statement. In solidarity with Dhaka As investigators work to determine the cause, leaders from across the region, including India and Pakistan, expressed grief and offered support to the Bangladeshi people during this national tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed his deep shock and sorrow over the loss of lives in the tragic Bangladesh Air Force training jet crash in Dhaka's Diabari area earlier today. In a post on X, the Prime Minister conveyed his condolences, stating that India stands in solidarity with the people of Bangladesh and is ready to extend its support and assistance for the rescue operation following the incident. Echoing similar sentiments, Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif also expressed his grief over the incident. 'Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives in the aircraft crash at Milestone School in Dhaka. My heartfelt condolences to the people of Bangladesh, especially the families of the victims, many of them young children,' he said. 'Pakistan stands in solidarity with the Government and people of Bangladesh in these difficult moments," he added.
South China Morning Post
26-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Stampede in Central African Republic leaves 29 students dead
Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry said on Thursday. Just over 5,300 students were sitting the second day of the baccalaureate exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the deeply poor nation. In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school. The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP journalists saw. 'I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,' President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party's Facebook page. Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning. According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city.
