At least 19 people have been killed after a Bangladesh Air Force training jet crashed into a school and college campus in Dhaka, a fire services official has said.
Another 171 students were rescued with injuries from a smouldering two-story building, officials said, including many with burns who were whisked away in helicopters, motorised rickshaws and the arms of firefighters and parents.
The incident occurred at the Milestone School and College in Dhaka's northern area of Uttara, officials said.
"Bangladesh Air Force's F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed in Uttara," the military's public relations department said in a statement.
The Chinese-made aircraft experienced a "technical malfunction" moments after take-off at 1:06pm local time, and the pilot attempted to divert the plane to a less populated area before crashing into the campus of Milestone School and College, according to the statement.
Videos from the scene show flames and thick black smoke rising from the campus lawn as onlookers watch from a distance.
Students said the school's buildings trembled violently, followed by a big explosion that sent them running for safety.
A desperate scene soon unfolded at the crash site as panicked relatives searched for loved ones. Screams filled the air at a nearby hospital.
Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school, said he "heard an explosion".
"When I was picking [up] my kids and went to the gate, I realised something came from behind," he said.
"When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke."
The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, made "every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location," the military said, adding that it would investigate the cause of the accident.
Firefighters were seen spraying water on the wreckage of the jet, which appears to have slammed into the side of a building.
The Milestone school is in Dhaka's Uttara neighbourhood, which is roughly 11 kilometres from the AK Khandaker air force base. The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes.
It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem.
The government announced a national day of mourning on Tuesday, with flags to fly at half-mast across the country.
Bangladesh's interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, called the losses "irreparable" and promised a full investigation and support for the victims and their families.
"The loss suffered by the air force … students, parents, teachers and staff, and others in this accident is irreparable," he said.
At the crash site on Monday, a father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms. A mother cried out, having found her younger child, but desperately searched for her older one.
Another father described his feeling of helplessness while waiting to learn the fate of his daughter.
"The plane crashed on the building where my daughter was. My wife called me, but I was praying so I could not pick up," Jewel, who goes by one name, said at the scene.
"When I came here I saw there was a huge fire. There was a dead body of a child."
Luckily, his daughter was safe, he said, but he saw many other children suffering from burns.
Students also scrambled to see what had happened.
"We fought with the crowd and the soldiers to get close to the crash site in our school," said Estiak Elahi Khan, who is in the 11th grade.
"What I saw I can't describe that … that's terrible."
By Monday evening, rescuers continued to scour the debris, searching for bodies. A crane was being used to remove debris.
The crash comes just over a month after an Air India plane struck a medical college in Ahmedabad, India, killing 241 passengers and crew and 19 people on the ground.
ABC/Reuters
