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Republic of Congo: At least 24 people were killed, including some on the ground, when a small plane crashed into a densely populated neighbourhood in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, a local lawmaker and a rescue worker said.
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The aircraft, which was operated by local company Busy Bee, crashed shortly after take-off en route to the city of Beni, about 250 km (155 miles) to the north, North Kivu Governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita's office said in a statement. | File picture: A Dornier 228-200 plane at the Goma International airport in Goma.
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The company said the 19-seater Dornier 228-200 had 16 passengers and two crew members on board.
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There was no word yet on what might have caused the accident.
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Jean Paul Lumbulumbu, the vice president of North Kivu's parliament, said 24 bodies had been recovered from the rubble, including those of several people hit by falling debris.
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A rescue worker, who asked not to be named, said 26 bodies had been recovered.
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At the crash site in Goma's Mapendo neighbourhood, residents threw water from buckets and cooking pots onto the smouldering wreckage. The rear section of the plane rested sideways, propped up by a wall, videos posted on social media showed.
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A Reuters witness at the scene said two people - one who was on board the plane and a child in a building hit by the wreckage - were rescued before the plane exploded into flames after crashing.
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Police arrested one man for stealing cash from the rubble and fired warning shots to disperse people who had started looting, he said.
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Air accidents are relatively frequent in Congo because of lax safety standards and poor maintenance. All Congolese commercial carriers, including Busy Bee, are banned from operating in the European Union.
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A cargo plane departing from the same airport and carrying staff members of President Felix Tshisekedi crashed an hour after take-off last month, killing all eight people on board.
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