An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London crashed five minutes after it took off at Ahmedabad airport in India.
232 passengers and 12 crew members were on board, officials say.
169 were Indian, 53 were British, seven were Portuguese and one was Canadian.
Rescue teams have been mobilised and the injured have been hospitalized.
There is a passenger hotline for those affected by the crash of Air India flight AI171.
We do not yet have news of casualties.
Local officials have been instructed to carry out “immediate rescue and relief operations” and to make arrangements on a “war footing”.
The British Foreign Office confirmed “the UK is working with local authorities in India to urgently establish the facts and provide support to those involved.”
Videos on social media show a low-flying aircraft trailing flames, descending toward a residential neighbourhood before ripping into orange and black smoke.
Another image shows the plane’s tail lodged into the roof of a residential building following the crash.
What’s worse, details, as we get them, are horrific: the plane crashed into a doctors’ hostel.
The Ahmedabad Airport has temporarily shut down and suspended all flights until further notice.
The Aviation Safety Network database said it was the first-ever Boeing 787 aircraft crash in the 14 years it has carried passenger flights.
The aircraft was an American-made Boeing operated by an Indian airline.
