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AHMEDABAD: The miracle report of a lone survivor from a London-bound passenger plane that crashed Thursday in the Indian city of Ahmedabad with 242 on board offered a glimmer of hope.

Indian rescue teams with sniffer dogs clawed through smoldering wreckage through the night searching for clues for what had caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London’s Gatwick Airport to explode in a blazing fireball soon after takeoff from the western city of Ahmedabad.

Bodies from Air India’s flight 171 were lifted out of the torn fuselage, as well as being pulled out of the charred buildings of the medical staff hostel that the airplane smashed into, killing several there too.

The death toll currently stands at 260, police said.

But hours after police said that there “appears to be no survivor in the crash,” officials reported the initially seemingly impossible account that one man had walked out alive.

“One survivor is confirmed,” Dhananjay Dwivedi, principal secretary of Gujarat state’s health department, told AFP.

The person was being treated in hospital, he added without further details.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah, who visited the crash site and then the hospital, said he was “pained beyond words by the tragic plane crash” in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat state, where Shah is a lawmaker.

But he also told reporters he had heard the “good news of the survivor” and was speaking to them “after meeting him.”

Indian media widely reported the survivor had been sitting in seat 11A, after videos shared on social media showed a man — in a bloodied t-shirt and limping, but walking toward an ambulance.

He shared a boarding card that named him as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, one of 53 UK citizens on board.

AFP was not able to confirm the reports, but the BBC spoke to his cousin in the city of Leicester, Ajay Valgi, who reported that Ramesh had called his family to say he was “fine.”

Britain’s Press Association news agency also spoke to his brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, also in Leicester.

“He said, I have no idea how I exited the plane,” his brother told PA.

But while Ramesh’s reported survival offered a chance of hope, stories also flooded in of heartbreaking loss: elderly parents going to visit children in Britain, or family returning home.

Air India is organizing relief flights — one from the capital New Delhi and another from financial hub Mumbai — to Ahmedabad for “the next of kin of passengers and Air India staff,” the information ministry said in a statement.

They will have to take part in the grim task of identifying the bodies, many of which were reported to have been badly burned.

The plane, which was full of fuel as it took off for a long-haul flight to London, exploded into a burst of orange flame, videos of the crash showed.

Dwivedi, the health official, said DNA collection facilities had been set up at BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad.

“DNA testing arrangements have been made,” he told reporters.

“Families and close relatives of the flight passengers, especially their parents and children, are requested to submit their samples at the location so that the victims can be identified at the earliest.”

LONDON: The Indian community in the UK has been left in deep shock after an Air India airplane bound for London Gatwick crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner carrying 242 people burst into flames when it hit buildings in Gujarat state’s largest city shortly after takeoff.

Among those on board were 53 British passengers and 169 Indian nationals, many of whom would have been on their way to visit relatives in the UK.

The former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he and his wife Akshata Murty were “deeply shocked and distressed” by the tragedy.

Sunak and Murty were in Ahmedabad earlier this month to watch the Indian Premier League cricket final at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

Sunak said on X: “There is a unique bond between our two nations and our thoughts and prayers go out to the British and Indian families who have lost loved ones today.” 

The High Commission of India in London said it was “deeply saddened by the tragic crash,” and that “thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this devastating incident.”

It urged those affected to follow official updates from India’s civil aviation ministry and added that High Commission staff would assist the next of kin of the victims in the UK.

With the UK and India’s deep historic, political and trade ties, the Indian community in the UK is thought to number around 1.8 million. At least 600,000 are part of the diaspora from Gujarat, the state where the Air India plane crashed.

MP Bob Blackman, whose constituency of Harrow East is home to one of the largest Gujarati communities in the UK, said almost all the Indian nationals on board would have been on their way to visit relatives in Britain.

“The community is shocked by what’s happened,” he told BBC radio. “A third of my constituents come from Gujarat originally, and they will all have family and friends there. It’s a very close community and so they’ll all be affected by this.”

Blackman had campaigned to get direct flights set up between Ahmedabad and the UK.

The route was among the promises made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who is from Gujarat — during a visit to the UK in 2015. Air India finally opened the route to Gatwick in 2023.

Blackman said: “It’s taken a long time to get these flights underway and that’s also what makes it even more of a tragedy: that one of these should crash and so many people have unfortunately lost their lives as a result.”

The MP praised the Gujarati community in the UK, saying that wherever they go throughout the world they bring improvements to education and the economy.

He added: “They’re hard-working people who look after their families and make sure everyone is protected, so when something like this happens it's a tragedy that’s felt by the whole community.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the scenes of the crash in Ahmedabad as “devastating.”

He added: “My thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time.”

King Charles III said he was “desperately shocked” by the tragedy.

“Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly tragic incident across so many nations, as they await news of their loved ones,” he said.

The crash comes a month after the UK and India signed a trade deal in the latest boost to their historic economic ties.

The accident stunned the business community operating between the two countries.

The UK India Business Council said it was deeply saddened by the crash.

“Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected by this tragedy,” it said. 

The UK branch of the Friends of India Society International said: “Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of those on board.”