By DPA
Nairobi/Kinshasa : A cargo plane crashed into a neighbourhood of the Congolese capital Kinshasa Thursday immediately after taking off, killing an unknown number of people, the Red Cross said.
It was unclear how many casualties there were after the Antonov-26 crashed in a residential area on the outskirts of the city, but the Red Cross said it was transporting wounded people to hospitals and that some bodies had been retrieved from the wreckage.
“There are markets and nearby houses. So there is a fear that casualties can be big,” said Wolde Gabriel Saugeron, spokesman for the International Committee for the Red Cross, who said the Congolese Red Cross was on the scene shortly after the crash Thursday morning.
“Unfortunately they have so many old planes flying that almost every week we have a catastrophe in Congo,” said Saugeron.
Congo’s aviation industry has one of the worst records for crashes, but many people rely on the transport to get around the vast country, which has only 500 kilometres of paved road.