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At least 140 believed dead as plane crashes in Lagos, Nigeria

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A plane crashed after takeoff on Sunday and ran into buildings in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, with at least 140 people on board, news agencies reported.

The head of the Civil Aviation Authority,Harold Demuren, said there were no survivors, Nigerian newspapers reported.

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The Dana Airlines plane was traveling from Lagos, the country’s commercial hub, to Abuja, the capital, one of the country’s most important air routes.

The plane did not to appear to have nose-dived into the ground, but seemed to have landed on its belly, the Associated Press reported. It first crashed through a furniture shop and then into residential buildings in a densely packed neighborhood.

The nose of the plane was embedded in a three-story apartment building, damaging only one part of the structure, the news service reported. Fire still smoldered as a group of men stood atop the landing gear and took pictures with their mobile phones.

Some news reports indicated that 140 to 150 people were aboard the flight. The local newspaper Vanguard put the number at 153.

Vanguard reported the plane struck a power line before hitting the first building. It said three buildings had been burned in the ensuing fire. Another local newspaper, This Day, ran an image of clouds of thick black smoke billowing from the crash site.

There is no information on casualties among people inside the buildings.

The crash came a day after a Nigerian cargo plane overshot a runway in Accra, the Ghana capital, and hit a commuter minibus, killing 10 people.

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--Robyn Dixon

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