Authorities say at least 12 people were killed Tuesday when a Yemeni air force plane crash near the center of the country’s capital.
According to NBC News , the aircraft, a Russian SU-22 fighter/ground attack plane, was on a training mission when it ripped through a building and crashed into a residential street in Sanaa.
Medics said the death toll — which included two children, three women, and four men — was expected to rise. More than 20 people were injured during the crash, which is also said to have set several houses and cars ablaze.
“It’s terrible and painful,” one witness told the AFP . “The police and medics evacuated five completely burned bodies, they were all unrecognizable.”
Reuters reports the pilot of the plane had ejected before the crash, but an Interior Ministry spokesman later told the Associated Press that he too was killed.
At the time of the writing, the cause of the crash remained unknown. The Interior Ministry said a military investigation was ongoing.
CNN notes Tuesday’s crash was second involving a military aircraft in Sanaa in three months.
In November 2012, a Yemeni military transport plane crashed near Sanaa airport and burst into flames, killing all 10 people aboard.
An amateur video uploaded on to YouTube claiming to be of the aftermath of the Sanaa plane crash can be viewed below:
