London-bound Air India flight with more than 240 aboard crashes after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India WSOC TV [Video]

AHMEDABAD, India — (AP) — An Air India passenger plane bound for London with more than 240 people on board crashed Thursday in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad, and there were no known survivors, officials said.

Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane went down in a populated area near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multistory buildings with water. Many charred bodies lay on the ground and one was carried away on a stretcher by first responders.

Modi called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words.”

“In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected,” he said in a social media post.

Indian television news channels reported the plane crashed on top of the dining area of a medical college hostel. It was unclear if any medical students were present …