102 killed in Russian plane crash: Emergency Ministry

Moscow, July 9 (UNI) At least 102 people have been killed and 54 injured in the Russian plane crash at the Siberian airport of Irkutsk, early today, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The dead included the eight-member crew, Interfax news agency reported quoting the the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry.

The condition of six of those admitted to the hospital was reported to be serious. There were 192 passengers and eight crew members aboard the plane, when it crashed after hitting a service building on landing at Irkutsk airport.

The Airbus A-310 crashed and exploded into flames after landing in the city of Irkutsk following a 5,000 km night flight from Moscow, emergency services said.

''It looked like the jet after landing veered off the runway and hit the building of the homing station,'' a source at the emergency department told the agency.

Air control services did not have any information that might indicate the ''presence of unscheduled situations'' aboard the plane, officials at the regional centre of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told the agency.

The flight recorders of the A-310 have already been recovered, an emergency official told Itar-Tass news agency.

Around 600 rescue workers were at the scene. Rescue teams, working in rainy weather and poor visibility, used cutting equipment to recover bodies from the smouldering wreckage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to set up a governmental commission to investigate the air crash of Airbus A-310 in Irkutsk, about 5,000 km east of Moscow, and to provide aid to the injured and to the families and relatives of those killed in the air disaster, the Kremlin press service said.

A governmental commission has been set up at Mr Putin's order to investigate the air crash and to provide aid to the victims, Russian Transport minister Igor Levitin told reporters in Moscow before flying to Irkutsk to monitor the situation.

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