KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese airline Hewa Bora said most of the 79 passengers on board its plane which crashed on Tuesday onto a crowded market district in the eastern town of Goma had survived the accident.
"We have managed to save most of the passengers who havebeen evacuated to hospitals," Dirk Cramers, a director of theairline, told Reuters. He said all of the seven crew membershad also survived.
Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu where Goma islocated, told Reuters that 19 bodies had been recovered so farand 76 injured people were being treated in local hospitals.
"The plane fell on a populated district," Paluku said,adding rescue teams were still working.
Witnesses and officials earlier said more than 70 peoplehad been killed when the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 slewed into theteeming market district of Birere, a warren of single-storeyshops and stalls which were crowded at that time of day.
(Reporting by Lubunga Bya'Ombe; Writing by Nick Tattersall)
