(AFP) – Rescue workers have so far pulled at least 62 bodies from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Lagos, an official said as searches pressed on Monday at the site of the devastation.
Two cranes arrived early Monday to clear debris and allow rescue workers better access to the densely populated area near the airport where the Dana Air plane crashed on Sunday, with the 153 people on board presumed dead.
“Sixty-two bodies recovered so far,” the rescue official said on condition of anonymity.
A few thousand onlookers gathered at the site, where a church, a two-storey residential building and a printing shop were badly damaged. The number of those killed on the ground remained unclear.
Smoke was still rising from the scene and water trucks were also brought in to douse the smouldering wreckage.
“We were lucky. We just finished our church service when this thing happened,” one resident at the scene on Monday morning said.
One woman, who said that her uncle had been aboard the plane, asked rescue workers if she could have access to the site, but they refused, saying the bodies were unrecognisable.
President Goodluck Jonathan has declared three days of national mourning for victims of the crash