Third and fourth year schoolchildren settled in a typical lunch break in their classrooms on Monday when the plane crashed in their building.
A fighter plane had suddenly returned to the air for a few moments before it accumulates in the two -story building, said Abu Sayed Mohammad Waliullah, teacher at the school in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, who had discussed with other teachers outside. The plane exploded with such a strong blow that it looked like a bomb that had started, he said.
“My mind became empty. I could not understand what had just happened,” said Waliullah. Then, after what seemed to be 10 seconds, he heard another explosion while the jet fuel of the plane turned on.
“This time, it created a large and big fire,” recalls Mr. Waliullah. “I saw at least two students shake by force.”
At least 31 people were killed, including the pilot. The tragedy of Milestone school and college has led to a national sorrow. Most of those who died were schoolchildren. 165 other people were injured, according to a statement that soldiers published on Tuesday afternoon.
Some 78 people, many of whom are in critical condition, received treatment in various hospitals, Sayedur Rahman, special assistant of Muhammad Yunus, acting head of government from Bangladesh on Tuesday morning. The bodies of 20 victims had been given to their families, he added.
The fighter plane – A BGI F -7 built by Chinese – had taken off 12 minutes earlier from a military air base less than two kilometers from the school. The officials said that a mechanical failure had caused the accident and promised to share more details after an investigation.
Bangladesh, the most densely populated country in the world, except some tiny island territories, said a day of mourning.
Mahathir Mohammed Abid, a 12th year student, was at the cafeteria, a few minutes walk from the school accident site, in an area called Uttara, north of the city’s international airport and a military air base.
Back on campus on Tuesday morning, he showed his hands, wrapped in bandages covering the burns he suffered while trying to save younger students.
He said he had run on the shipwrecked plane to enter the fire building.
“I have recovered the body of a young student with my own hands,” said Abid, 18. “He had been burned alive.”
This was the shock, said Abid, which he vomited after body management.
Other students also gathered outside the school on Tuesday, some of which shouting in anxiety, convinced that even more people had been killed.
Waliullah said the main campus of the Jalon school serves around 10,000 students, who take courses in English and Bangla. If the accident had taken place only 10 minutes earlier, he said, even more students would have been in their classrooms. During the lunch break, at least some of them had gone outside to play or eat at the school cafeteria.
Sagor Hossain came to the scene to seek his 8 -year -old niece, Raisa Moni. Everything he found was a burned pink school bag and books that belonged to him.
He was walking on campus by holding the bag to journalists and their cameras. His name was clearly visible on a dipped notebook: “Raisa Moni” and her note, “three”.
“We want to know what happened to her, if she is alive or dead or injured,” said Sagor, a university attendant. His parents fell ill after searches the hospitals overnight, he said. “Where should I go now?”
Maruf Hasan contributed Dacca reports.
