The death toll from the crash of an
Indonesian air force plane packed with military personnel and their
families rose to 142 Wednesday, as witnesses described people fleeing
the disaster zone covered in blood with their clothes alight.
The
Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed into a residential area in the
city of Medan on Tuesday, shortly after taking off from an airbase in
the city on Sumatra island.
Buildings were severely
damaged, cars reduced to flaming wrecks and the plane itself was almost
completely destroyed, with the mangled tail the only part of the
51-year-old aircraft still recognisable after the disaster.
Many
of those on board the flight to an island off Sumatra, which was
carrying 122 people, were believed to be servicemen and women and their
families. The air force has said no one survived the crash.
It
is unclear how many people died on the ground, but a steady stream of
bodies has been arriving at a Medan hospital as rescuers pull them from
the disaster scene, and police said Wednesday that the total death toll
now stood at 142.
New witness accounts emerged of
terrifying scenes, with one man describing how the plane flew low and
then smashed into a building, producing "flames as high as four
storeys".
"Everyone panicked and screamed," Tumpak
Naibaho, a 27-year-old tyre repairman, told AFP, adding there were
hundreds of people in the area when the crash happened around midday.
"I
thought it was a terrorist attack or something... I saw one man whose
clothes were on fire, staggering out of the debris. His face was covered
in blood, dust and ash."
"I had never felt so scared in my life, I thought I was going to die," he added.
au.news.yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment