Dhaka: The death toll from the crash of a Bangladesh Air Force training jet into a school in Dhaka has risen to 19, mostly children, officials said today. Many others who suffered severe burn injuries were receiving treatment in hospital.

According to Oman News Agency, the Chinese-made F-7BGI fighter jet crashed into the two-storey Milestone School and College in the north of the capital. At the time of the crash, many children were present at the school, which teaches children from elementary up to 12th grade.

The crash occurred minutes after the plane took off, according to the Bangladesh military's media division. It said that the pilot of the training aircraft noticed a technical malfunction soon after it took off from Dhaka's Kurmitola airbase and tried to take the aircraft to a thinly populated area.

But it then crashed into the school building, killing 19 people, including the pilot, and injuring 164 others, the military said.