20 killed as Bangla fighter jet crashes into school

A Bangladeshi fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 170 in the country’s deadliest aviation accident in decades.

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Many of the victims were young students who had just been let out of class when a Chinese-made F-7 BJl aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw fire and rescue officials taking away the injured students on stretchers, while army personnel helped clear the mangled wreckage.

A military statement said 20 people were killed, including the pilot, and 171 others injured when the jet crashed following a mechanical failure.

An 18-year-old student, Shafiur Rahman Shafi, said he heard a huge blast that felt like an earthquake.

"There were two fighter planes... Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground)," he told AFP.

"It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire," he added.

The well-known private school offers education to children from kindergarten through to senior secondary.

Most of the injured were aged between eight and 14, said Mohammad Maruf Islam, joint director of Dhaka's National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute where many victims were treated.