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Moments before the kids would hear the school bell had they heard a bang and fireball ramming into their classrooms.
Some succumbed instantly, many let out screams out of life-sapping burns.
Such are eyewitness accounts of Monday's air-force jet crash into a Dhaka school and college that horrified all around.
Neighbouring areas of Milestone School and College in Uttara area turned into a place catastrophe on Monday afternoon as a training fighter jet accidentally crashed onto a building of its campus.
Carrying bodies by ambulances, movement of speeding rescue vehicles, grumble of the worried family members, and crowds of overenthusiastic people pushing and shoving in were prevalent in front of it campus.
Located next to the Dhaka Metro Rail depot, the permanent campus of the educational institution began its day as usual.
Many guardians left their children with plans to take them back after several hours.
However, many of the young ones would no more return to their homes along with parents since they became victim of an unprecedented mishap around 1:30 pm.
A training fighter plane of Bangladesh Air Force crashed on two-storey Haider Ali Bhaban on the campus, leaving at least 20 dead and nearly 200 injured.
"I am looking for my friends and young brothers who were still inside the campus," says a ninth-grader of the school who left the campus few moments before the plane crashed.
"The building was being used for primary students' special coaching after their regular class was accomplished," says the student, whose identity is not disclosed for his safety.
He also shares several photos and video footage to the correspondent delineating the severity of the tragic development. It was impossible to identify some of the burnt bodies he was showing on his phone screen.
Like him, many worried and saddened bystanders were waiting outside the streets below the metro-rail viaduct.
Ambulances, fire-service rescue team and other security forces' vehicles are coming to and from the campus.
When an ambulance is coming out, people are trying to have a look inside lest they could find their close ones.
Amena Khatun, a housewife living in neighbouring area, waits with saddened countenance outside the campus.
"My husband works in a building nearby the campus. I cannot contact him for several hours," she tells the correspondent at around 5.30 pm.
She also says she heard that their residential building owner lost two of his sons in the incident.
In addition to the regular forces, volunteers comprising people from different walks of life were also trying to help.
Several of them are shouting for blood donors, especially for negative blood groups.
All over by now, the injured were admitted to different hospitals in Uttara including Bangladesh Medical, Shinshin Japan Hospital, Crescent Hospital, Lubana Hospital, Eastwest Hospital and Dhaka Medical's Burn Unit .
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