153 passengers feared killed as plane crashes in Nigeria

Lagos – More than 150 people are feared dead after a passenger airplane crashed into a building in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.

Femi Oke-Osanyinpolu, Lagos state emergency state manager, said on Sunday that casualty numbers are unknown.

Lagos airport has been shut down and passengers awaiting further flights told to go home

“NEMA (the National Emergency Management Agency) has been alerted to an air crash in the Ishaga area of Agege, Lagos,” NEMA spokesman Yushua Shuaib said.

Witnesses said they saw the plane strike a building and burst into flames.

The weather in Lagos on Sunday was clear and sunny.

Lagos’ international airport is a major hub for West Africa and saw 2.3 million passengers pass through it in 2009, according to the most recent statistics provided by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.

In August 2010, the US announced it had given Nigeria the FAA’s Category 1 status, its top safety rating that allows the nation’s domestic carriers to fly directly to the US.