The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 242 people, crashed into several buildings at Ahmedabad’s Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College on Thursday
afternoon.

Authorities are yet to formally reveal the death toll. “We have retrieved 204 bodies,” Ahmedabad police commissioner G.S. Malik told reporters in the evening.

But the toll is expected to be higher.

The crash radius falls in the crowded neighbourhoods of Meghaninagar and Asarwa, close to the east bank of the Sabarmati river. The area was littered with huge, smouldering chunks of aircraft fuselage, mangled corpses and burning vehicles, buildings and trees.

The injured were taken to several medical institutions in this part of the city.

Shyam Govind, an injured BJMC doctor, said: “My junior doctor and I have been injured. Thirty-forty undergraduate doctors too have suffered injuries and one or two students are serious.”

Dr Pratik Joshi, Dr Kaumi Vyas, Miraya Joshi, Pradyut Joshi and Nakul Joshi — all residents of Banswara in Udaipur — were among the passengers who lost their lives in the crash on Thursday. PTI

The aircraft came down on four residential blocks for students and interns while they were having their lunch in the mess. The plane’s tail is seen protruding from one building in one of the images, and a part of the fuselage hangs over the mess hall with plates of food and glasses strewn around.

NDTV reported that five doctors were dead.

“Till now around 50-60 MBBS students are admitted (to hospital) & everyone is stable,” the Federation of All India Medical Associations said in a statement in the evening.

“Four-five MBBS students are missing and 2-3 in HDU & ICU. Three-four relatives of super specialist resident doctors are missing right now & wife of one found dead….”

The federation has urged people to donate blood at all the major blood banks in the city.

Ramila, mother of one of the students, told reporters at the Civil Hospital: “My son had gone to the hostel during lunch break, and the plane crashed there. My son is safe, I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries.”

Haresh Shah, a resident of the area, told reporters: “There are several five-floor buildings which serve as residential quarters. Many people in those apartments were injured as the buildings also caught fire.”

Several corpses were charred beyond recognition, leaving DNA identification as the lone option.

Dhananjay Dwivedi, additional chief secretary (health and family) who headed the operations at the Civil Hospital, told a news conference that the aircraft crashed over a students’ hostel, staff quarters and other residential areas.

“Residents of that area were also injured. About 50 injured people have been brought to Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. They are being provided the best treatment,” he said.

“They are serious but stable. DNA testing arrangements have been made at B.J. Medical, so families and near ones of the flight passengers, especially their parents and children, are requested to submit their samples at the location so that the victims are identified at the earliest.”

He added: “If relatives of the passengers and other injured who have been brought to the Civil Hospital have to make any inquiry, Civil Hospital Ahmedabad has issued two helpline numbers - 6357373831 and 6357373841.”

In addition to police and fire services, hundreds of soldiers and personnel from the coastguard, central armed police and the National Disaster Response force have been deployed in the relief operation.

All cultural events in Ahmedabad, promotional film screenings in other cities, and an event of Salman Khan in Mumbai were cancelled after the tragedy.