Friday, Apr 19, 2002
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Smoke billows out of a 30-storey building in Milan, Italy into which a plane crashed on Thursday. Below is a street littered with the debris - AP
``We have news of three dead and dozens and dozens injured,'' said Pier Gianni Prosperini, deputy head of Milan's regional Government. The aircraft crashed into the 25th floor of the 30-storey building — a Milan landmark — which houses the Lombardy regional authority headquarters around 3:45 p.m. (9.15 p.m. IST), witnesses said. The impact gutted the 25th floor and badly damaged the floors immediately above and below. Holes were punched into two sides of the slim skyscraper and smoke was still pouring out nearly three hours after the crash.
Not a terror strike?
Mr. Scajola immediately sought to dispel fears of a repeat of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and said the crash was ``probably an accident.''
Smoke was pouring from the skyscraper in the central Piazza Duca D'Aosta, and the wreckage was scattered in the streets below. The Milan stock market suspended after-hours trading following the explosion. A police officer, De Simone, said the plane had taken off from Locarno, Switzerland, and was heading for Milan's Linate airport. The pilot had sent out a distress call just before crashing into the Pirelli building near the main train station. ``It sounded like a bomb. The pavement shook like an earthquake,'' said a woman. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot as he was circling the city ahead of trying to land around 5:45 p.m. ``We believe it isn't a terrorist attack,'' Carabinier paramilitary officer, Vincenzo Curto, said. ``The pilot might have taken ill or it was an engine problem.''
Bush informed
The U.S. President, George W. Bush, had been informed of the crash, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said. ``The President was informed... we will ascertain what the facts are.'' A report from New York said Wall Street's Dow Jones industrials index lurched sharply lower following the crash in Milan, but later found its feet. The index, a barometer of blue chip stocks, was down 163.78 points, or 1.60 per cent, at 10,057.00 points, as soon as the news spread. It later recovered as news emerged that the pilot might have lost control, easing fears of a repetition of the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. About 40 minutes after the news first broke, the Dow Jones index was down 68.40 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 10,152.38. Immediately after the incident, the president of the Upper House of Parliament said the building was ``very probably'' the target of a terror attack, but soon after his spokesman said it was probably "just an accident." Since September 11, Italy has been at the forefront of the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Europe. In October, the U.S. officials said they believed that Milan's Islamic Cultural Institute was the Al- Qaeda's main European base. Muslim leaders in Italy have, however, denied that charge. Italy has arrested around 30 persons on suspicion of links to extremist Islamic groups since September 11 and has frozen around $ 300 million of suspected assets. — AFP, Reuters
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