‘No survivors’ after plane carrying 242 people crashes in India

Police have said there appear to be 'no survivors' from an Air India flight that crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad that was heading to Gatwick Airport in the UK.

242 people had been on board the plane and Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told AP: "It appears there are no survivors in the plane crash."

He said that since the flight had crashed in a residential area with homes and offices 'some locals would have also died' and they are working on getting exact casualty figures from the disaster.

Of the 242 passengers and crew on board the plane, Air India says that there were 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian.

Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director general of India’s directorate of civil aviation, said the crash occurred at 1:38pm local time (9:08am BST), and authorities have also released a full list of the passengers on board the plane.

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India's foreign ministry, said that the crash was 'a very tragic accident' and said that full details on how many people had died in the disaster would take more time.

He said: "The rescue operations are on. We need to wait a little more time for exact details to be put out.

"We have lost a lot of people. We extend our deepest condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones."

Air India's chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said the crash was a 'tragic accident' and a 'devastating event', with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashing into the BJ Medical College hostel in Ahmedabad.

In a statement, Air India said: "Flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after take-off'.

"The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 1338 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals."_Agencies.