China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735: debris and belongings recovered but search for survivors continues
- Shards of wreckage from the wings and fuselage of the Boeing 737-800 recovered from valley, cause of tragedy not known
- Relatives of passengers continue to gather in Wuzhou as police cordon off mountainous area containing crash zone
Shards of wreckage from the wings and fuselage of the Boeing 737-800 have been recovered, together with several identity cards, wallets and banknotes in a valley surrounded by bamboo and trees with traces of scorching, according to footage from state broadcaster CCTV.
01:43
Boeing 737 plane crashes in China’s southern Guangxi with 132 people on board
There was no sign of fatalities in the footage. More than 24 hours after the crash, there has been no official confirmation of casualties.
Police marked dozens of pieces of wreckage and cordoned off the mountainous area near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Only state media have been allowed to report from the scene. The live coverage by Xinhua and CCTV has attracted tens of millions of viewers on their platforms, with many in the audience commenting on Weibo they were praying for a miracle.
The aircraft carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members disappeared en route to Guangzhou after taking off from Kunming, in Yunnan province in southwestern China, at 1.10pm on Monday.