KHARTOUM, July 8: A Sudanese airliner crashed early on Tuesday near Sudan’s Red Sea coast, leaving a baby boy as the sole survivor among the 116 passengers and crew aboard the plane bound for the capital Khartoum, officials said.

Among those who died in the crash of the Sudan Airways Boeing 737 were a senior military officer as well as eight foreigners, including three Indians, a Chinese and a Briton, airline officials said. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, speaking during a visit to Mozambique, charged that a US embargo was responsible for the crash because it denied Khartoum the spare parts needed to service Boeing planes.

A government spokesman, Abdel Hamid Abdeen, said the pilot reported “technical problems” about 10 minutes after taking off from Port Sudan and told the control tower he was trying to return to the airport.

However, the plane crashed on land near the Red Sea coast about 18 kilometers from the airport, Mr Abdeen said.—AFP