Video:

ISLAMABAD: A commercial airbus of AirBlue has crashed into Margalla Hills, a mountainous range behind Shah Faisal Mosque, apparently due to rough weather, Geo news reported.

According to preliminary reports, as many as 150 passengers including crewmembers were on board plane while the smoke is seen rising through heavy clouds from the crash site, police and rescue service officials said.

Eyewitnesses said people noticed airbus flying at very low altitude near Daman-e-Koh this morning and it might have crashed due to rough weather.

The wreckage can be seen in video footages with fierce fire raging and smoke emitting from there despite heavy rains in Islamabad.

Airport sources said the flight took off at 7:50am from Karachi to Islamabad but crashed due to uneven weather a few minutes before landing after loosing connection with control tower.

Islamabad is witnessing heavy showers and thick fog at the moment. Meanwhile rescue teams have been dispatched to area.

Update:
ISLAMABAD: Five people have been rescued from the wreckage of a Airblue crashed at Margalla Hills early on Wednesday.

One hundred and forty-six people including 139 adults, five kids and five crewmembers were onboard whereas 12 are those lucky people who missed the flight.

According to sources, an airbus 320 bound for Islamabad departed from Karachi at 7:50 am. The local residents said plane made low flight before the crash.

Rescue operation is underway despite difficulties because of hilly location of the incident site.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said five wounded being shifted to hospital whereas rescue operation and search for black box is underway. The airport control tower had signaled landing approach to the plane when it was just eight kilometers away from the airport, reports said.

KARACHI: At least 43 people were killed and scores of people wounded on Monday after a powerful blast ripped through Karachi’s main Ashura procession at MA Jinnah Road.

Sindh Health Minister Dr. Saghir Ahmed confirmed Geo that 20 people were martyred in the blast.

The blast triggered stampede and panic among the mourners, who pelted stones at the police vehicles. Some eyewitnesses said they have heard some gunshots on the occasion.

The ambulances soon reached the blast site and shifted the injured to the hospitals, where emergency has already been declared.

Fire broke out after the blast in Karachi, fanning thick smoke into the sky, and people were running in all directions, an AFP reporter said.

Police sources said they are trying to confirm the nature of the blast.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the blast that ripped through the main Ashura procession in Karachi.

In a separate message from London, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has strongly condemned the bomb blast occurred at the Karachi’s main Ashura procession today.

Hussain appealed to the mourners to maintain calm after the blast

Monday, December 28, 2009