By IRNA,
Dushanbe : 44 Iranians on board a Kyrgyz passenger plane died when it crashed shortly after takeoff from Bishkek airport on Sunday.
IRNA reporter in Bishkek said that 68 passengers died in the crash.
The Boeing-737 with 90 people on board went down a few kilometres from Bishkek’s Manas airport after the plane suffered a dramatic loss of cabin pressure.
The Boeing, owned by Kyrgyz carrier, Itek-Air, was bound for Tehran.
Hashem Qadirian, an Iranian Embassy official told IRNA that out of the total 90 passengers of the plane, 54 were Iranians. 10 Iranians are among the wounded, he added.
The wounded Iranians will be transferred to Iran to go under treatment inside the country, he said, adding that efforts are being made to identify those killed.
There were 51 foreigners among the passengers, including Iranian, Turkish, Chinese and Canadian nationals.
Seventeen members of a local teenage basketball team were also on board the plane, seven of whom survived the crash.