At least 27 people were killed and more than 170 injured on Monday when a training aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed into a school campus in Dhaka, marking the country's deadliest aviation accident in decades, authorities said.

"The bodies of those whose identities can be confirmed will be handed over to their families as soon as possible," Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus said on Monday. "The bodies of those whose identities cannot be immediately confirmed will be identified through DNA testing and subsequently handed over to their families."

"To ensure uninterrupted medical operations, the general public is specially requested to avoid unnecessary crowding in the hospital area," he added.

What do we know so far?

At least 27 people were killed and more than 170 were injured in the crash, with at least 100 needing hospital treatment, the authorities said.

"So far, 27 people have died. Among them, 25 are children and one is a pilot," a Health Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday morning.

The Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft took off at 1:06 pm local time (0706 GMT) and crashed soon after at the Milestone School and College campus. The educational institution is located in the Uttara neighborhood and students were in class at the time of the accident. The school has students from elementary up to 12th grade.

Footage of the aftermath of the crash showed a big fire near a lawn emitting a thick plume of smoke into the sky, as crowds watched on from afar.

Firefighters sprayed water on the mangled remains of the plane, which appeared to have rammed into the side of a building, damaging iron grills and creating a gaping hole in the structure, Reuters TV visuals showed.

The cause of the crash is not yet known and the government said it would launch an investigation.

Bangladesh's deadliest air crash in more than 40 years

Bangladesh's deadliest ever aviation disaster occurred in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.

Monday's incident comes a little over a month after an Air India plane crashed on top of a medical college hostel in India's Ahmedabad city, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground, making it the world's deadliest aviation disaster in a decade.

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko