Besides the passengers and crew on board the Air India flight, at least 24 people, including four medical students, were killed on the ground, as the plane crashed into the hostel building of the B J Medical College in Meghaninagar area of Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon. Confirming the deaths at the medical college, Dr Minakshi Parikh, Dean, B J Medical College, said four MBBS students — two from First Year and two from Second Year – and a doctor's wife were among those dead. She said two more students were missing, while another 20 were injured. Five of the injured students are in a “serious” condition, she said. “Three First Year students and two Second Year students are seriously injured while two Third Year students are not reachable,” she said. Also among the missing are three family members of a doctor, she said. The B J Medical College is attached to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. “Since the bodies that came in could not be identified, we made teams of students call up each student. That is how we got an idea of the casualties,” Dr Parikh said. She said forensic scientists had arrived to help with the identification of victims. Dhananjay Dwivedi, principal secretary, health & family welfare department, who has been appointed as officer on special duty at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, said the state government has set up DNA testing centres to expedite identification of victims, and requested their families to submit DNA samples. “The hostel of medical students, staff quarters of the hospital and other residential areas are located in the area where the plane crashed. Several people were injured. About 50 injured people were taken to hospital, where they are reported to be in a stable condition,” Dwivedi said earlier in the day. “The plane crashed in the dining hall of the hostel where people were present. Many of them were injured and taken to hospital,” a PTI report quoted an eyewitness as saying. “There are several five-floor buildings which serve as residential quarters. Many people in those apartments were injured as the buildings also caught fire,” another eyewitness, Haresh Shah, told PTI.
