Several people were feared dead after a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying 90 passengers and eight crew members crashed in a residential area near the Karachi Airport on Friday, Dawn reported.
Abdullah Hafeez, the PIA spokesperson, said that flight PK 8303 from Lahore was about to land in Karachi when it crashed at the Jinnah Garden area, Dawn reported.
Expressing shock over the incident, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said rescue and relief teams were on the ground and an immediate inquiry would be instituted. He also gave his condolences to the families of the deceased.
Plane crash site in Karachi pic.twitter.com/CEBE7mB34J
— Kartikeya Sharma (@kartikeya_1975) May 22, 2020
Footages shared on social media show smoke billowing from the site of the crash. Ambulances and rescue officials have been pressed into service to help residents.
According to reports, several houses have been damaged in the area where the aircraft crashed.
A statement by the Pakistan Army’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that Army Quick Reaction Force and Sindh Pakistan Rangers reached the spot for carrying out rescue and relief operations alongside civil administration.
Ambulances and fire brigade vehicles gather at the site of a passenger plane crash in a residential area near an airport in Karachi, Pakistan May 22, 2020. (Source: Reuters)
Minister of Health and Population Welfare has declared emergency in all major hospitals of Karachi after the incident, Dawn news quoted Meeran Yousuf, the media coordinator to the Sindh health minister, as saying.
Source: IndianExpress