April 5, 2003	Saturday	Safar 2, 1424

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NEW DELHI, April 4: An Indian Airforce fighter caught fire and crashed into houses in Punjab, killing at least five civilians on the ground, officials said.

Three more civilians were injured when the MiG-23 ground-attack plane slammed into their homes in Ludhiana district’s overcrowded Mullanpur area, Indian air force spokesman squadron leader Rakesh Dhingra said.

The pilot ejected as the plane began breaking up in the sky and was injured after hitting the ground, airforce sources said.

Among those killed were two women, one of them pregnant, a teenaged boy and an infant who was buried under the rubble, officials at the site said.

Dhingra said the debris fell on two houses but others reported damage to five residential complexes in Mullanpur which is near the Halwara base, some 350 kilometres north of Delhi.

The houses caught fire.

The airforce rushed officials to the site with compensation to families of those killed, Dhingra said, as Punjab state Chief Minister Amrinder Singh announced separate compensation packages to those affected.—AFP