Staff Correspondent:

Just a while back, little children were sitting in that classroom, some listening to their teacher, some probably looking out the window, staring at a bird flying in the sky.

At around 2.30pm, when our photographer, Mehedi Hasan, reached Milestone School and College, it looked like a warzone.

At around 1:15pm, a large mechanical bird, a fighter jet of Bangladesh Air Force, fell from the sky, crashing into one of the buildings of the institute.

In that very classroom, a lonely shoe was lying in the rubble, with the other one missing, who knows where it was gone.

Who knows where the little girl – who put on that very pair of shoes in the morning – was gone!

Outside, parents were trying to get in, looking for their missing boys and girls.

“Let me in!” One mother yelled at one of the law enforcing agency members. I went to the hospital, I came back here again, where is my child?”

No one had an answer.

Hundreds and hundreds of people were flocking all around, in the balconies, on the rooftops. Some immediately started volunteering, creating human chains to contain the crowds to make way for ambulances.

At one point, dozens of ambulances were going in and coming out with the victims of the crash. Journalists, with others, were barred from entering the premises, so we don’t have details on what was going on inside.

Members of the fire service, air force, the army, and police were working in the college premises, salvaging the remnants of the jet. A large part of it was stuck inside the classroom, so the rescuers called a crane to take it out. Some parts were brought out by making a large hole by removing a window.

While the jet directly hit a classroom, other classrooms were on fire, the smoke marks said. Damaged walls and windows bore the sign of the crash.

As of submitting this piece, at least 20 were confirmed dead, with 171 hospitalised with burn and other injuries.