Ahmedabad: The B.J. Medical College and Civil Hospital in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad was vacating all the four affected hostels in the Air India aircraft (AI 171) crashed Thursday.
“All the four hostels are being vacated and alternative arrangements have been made for them at various facilities,” said Minakshi Parikh, B.J. Medical College professor and dean, in the first interaction with the media after the incident.
The aircraft descended with explosive force onto the residential blocks—Atulyam 1,2,3 and 4—where intern and resident doctors were living. “Aircraft accident investigation bureau has to investigate the site, so we have evacuated the hostel area,” said Parikh.
Parikh said students of all the blocks are shifted to various other makeshift arrangements such as P-G hostels, the hostel facilities provided by U.N. Mehta Institute of Cardiology & Research Centre, staff quarters of dental doctors, and also some accomodation rented for one year. She said that 33 postgraduate students have been sent to different hostels.
On Thursday, AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 crashed into the medical college at around 1.40 pm in the afternoon. The residents were said to be having their lunch at the time. So far, there is no official number of how many people were inside at the time.
It was not clear what led to the incident, but Air India confirmed in a late-night update that 241 people on board had been killed. Only one passenger, a British national, survived.
While the accomodations saw extensive damage, authorities have not confirmed how many people were killed in total and their identities.
Till Saturday afternoon 270 dead bodies had been recovered from the crash site, Dr Dhaval Gameti, president of the Junior Doctors’ Association at the BJ Medical College, said to the media Saturday. Among the dead were 4 students of B.J. Medical college.
On Saturday, the Junior Doctors Association in a statement said that, of the 20 MBBS students injured in the accident, 11 have been discharged.
ThePrint had earlier reported that at least two people—the mother and daughter of Ravibhai Thakur, the only supplier of the tiffin service at the medical college, were missing. He has submitted his DNA sample to authorities in an effort to identify if the two are among those killed.
When asked about the DNA collection process, Parikh said, “I will send a responsible person for a briefing regarding the DNA.”
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)