At least 25 people were killed Wednesday when a plane crash-landed shortly after taking off from South Sudan’s capital Juba.
Police were pulling the bodies of men, women and children out of the wreckage of the cargo plane, which crashed into a small farming community on a small island in the White Nile river, close to Juba airport.
“Cargo plane heading to Paloch in Upper Nile State crashed just 800 metres from Juba International Airport runway,” reported Radio Miraya, a UN-backed station.
The radio said as many as 40 people were feared dead, adding that airport officials had told them only three passengers had survived.
The main fuselage of the plane had ploughed into thick woodland, with debris scattered around the riverbank in a wide area.
Several small farming communities live on the island, and it was not clear if some of the victims were people who were on the ground when the plane hit.