MUMBAI, Oct 1: Two Indian navy transport planes flying in an air show collided in mid-air on Tuesday in the western state of Goa, killing 15 people and injuring another 15, officials said.

The two planes, each carrying six crew members, took off from the resort state’s main airport in Panaji and hit each other around in the nearby area of Zuarinagar, police said.

“Fifteen people have been killed, including the 12 crew members and three civilians on the ground,” Pradeep Srivastava, a senior police official at the scene, said.

“The rescue operation is now over,” he said. “There were people trapped in a house that was under construction but we believe that most of them have been rescued.”

Srivastava said many of the bodies were badly mangled after the planes collided. One of the planes crashed on a road and the other on the building where the construction crew was working.

He said another 15 people on the ground were injured and taken to the hospital for treatment.

The Russian-made Ilyushin-38 naval planes were each carrying six crew members when they crashed, Air Force chief S. Krishnaswamy said in New Delhi.

“They were practicing exercises in close formation and the aircrafts collided,” he told reporters.—AFP