Plane Hits Block Of Flats

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Plane Hits Block Of Flats
Updated: 15:30, Tuesday December 06, 2005



A military plane has crashed into a block of flats in Iran killing all 94 passengers and at least 25 residents.

More are feared dead after the C-130 aircraft hit the block while attempting an emergency landing.

A large gash was torn in the top floor of the 10-storey building in the Towhid residential complex in the country's capital Tehran.

Eyewitness Reza Sadeqi said: "It was like an earthquake.

"The force of the crash threw me about three metres inside my shop. I felt the heat of the fire caused by the crash. It was like being in hell."


The block is home to about 250 residents - members of the military and their families.

The plane had taken off from the city's Mehrabad airport and was on its way to Bandar Abbas.



A report on state television said the plane suffered a "technical problem" immediately after take-off.

It had requested an emergency landing at Mehrabad airport but crashed on its return.

Many of the passengers on board were journalists reporting on military exercises.

The city is currently enveloped in a thick blanket of fog and many residents had stayed at home because of the pollution.

In 2003 an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in the south east of the country, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew on board.