At least 50 people have been killed in a plane crash in Kathmandu on Monday morning.
The aircraft carrying 67 passengers and four crew veered off the runway and struck an airport fence before bursting into flames as it attempted to land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal’s capital.
“We have recovered 50 dead bodies so far,” said army spokesman Gokul Bhandari. Several people had been rescued from the burning wreckage of the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft but nine people were still unaccounted for, he said.
The flight from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka is operated by US-Bangla Airlines.
Airport spokesman Birendra Prasad Shrestha said: “We are trying to bring the fire under control. Details are awaited. We’re now concentrating on evacuating the passengers.”
Television images showed smoke rising from the crash site and all flights in and out of the airport have been cancelled.
Data from tracking website Flightradar24.com showed the aircraft was 17 years old. The aircraft descended to an airport altitude of 4,400 feet and then ascended up to 6,600 feet before crashing about two minutes later, the website said.
Mountainous Nepal is notorious for air accidents and small aircraft often run into trouble at provincial airstrips.
A Thai Airways flight from Bangkok crashed while trying to land in Kathmandu in 1992 killing all on board.
US-Bangla Airlines is a unit of the US-Bangla Group, a US Bangladeshi joint venture company.