Islamabad: A cargo aircraft crashed within a naval residential compound shortly after taking off from the airport in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday, with all members of the crew and several persons on the ground feared killed.
The Il-76 aircraft, which had an eight-member crew on board, crashed near Dalmia area within the cantonment in Karachi at 1:50 am on Sunday.
It went down in a part of the naval compound where some new apartments were being built.
Several witnesses told TV news channels that they had seen the aircraft on fire before it crashed.
The aeroplane exploded after hitting the ground, they said.
Debris from the aircraft lay scattered over an area of one-and-half kilometres.
Footage on television showed massive flames and thick black smoke rising into the skies from the crash site.
Several smaller explosions occurred after the crash as the aircraft's fuel tanks were full.
Police, rescue teams and fire fighters rushed to the crash site, located in a thickly populated area.
Dozens of fire tenders were rushed to the crash site to bring the flames under control.
TV news channels quoted local residents as saying that several workers living at the construction site were feared to have been killed or injured.
Witnesses said some bodies pulled out of the aircraft were mutilated beyond recognition.
The aircraft was flying from Karachi to Khartoum in Sudan.
On November 5, all 21 people on board a small aircraft chartered by an international oil company were killed when it crashed shortly after taking off from the airport in Karachi.
That aircraft crashed within an army ordnance depot.
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