LAGOS, Dec 10: A Nigerian jet airliner plunged in flames on to the tarmac at Port Harcourt airport on Saturday killing 103 people, all but seven of those on board, an aviation official said. There was no official confirmation of the cause of the crash, but witnesses and officials said it had overshot the runway during an electrical storm and may have been struck by lightning.

“There was an accident at about 2.08pm (1408 GMT). It involved Sosoliso flight 1145,” said Sam Adurogoboye, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

“The aircraft was a DC-9 with 110 souls on board. Seven were rescued. The rest died,” he added.

Officials at Port Harcourt airport said that a large number of those who were killed were young school students returning home for the Christmas holidays.

“The plane was burnt completely. I saw many bodies. Bodies of adults and children. I couldn’t count them,” said Honour Sirawoo, spokesman for the deputy governor of Rivers State.

“We heard that there were some children on board. We saw burnt books,” he added.

The flight had arrived from the federal capital Abuja and was landing in Port Harcourt, the main centre of Nigeria’s oil industry and a base for many international companies.

A police spokesman said that 57 bodies had been recovered and that the seven casualties had been taken to hospital.

An executive with an international security consultancy with staff at the airport said: “What we are hearing is that the plane was struck by lightning.”—AFP