India plane crash: More tears as death toll hits 279

Site of the plane crash

An Indian police source said on Saturday that 279 bodies had been recovered from the site where a passenger jet crashed into a residential district of the city of Ahmedabad.

The revised toll from a senior officer in the city, who requested anonymity in order to speak to the media, raises an earlier figure of 265.

The increase makes it one of the deadliest plane disasters of the 21st century.

Air India said there were 242 people on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, only one of whom survived.

At least 38 people were killed on the ground when the plane smashed into residential buildings near the airport.

The official casualty number will not be finalised until the slow process of DNA identification is completed. Punch