Image source, Facebook

Tributes have been paid to a woman and her grandson from Northamptonshire who are thought to have died in the plane crash.

Raxa Modha, from Wellingborough, and her two-year-old grandson, Rudra, are believed to have been flying back to England for a memorial service for Ms Modha's late husband, who recently died from cancer.

Jaya Tailor says she knew Ms Modha personally described her as "a real people's person".

"She helped her husband build a business," Ms Tailor adds. "She loved having people around her."

• The mayor of Wellingborough has also paid tribute, which you can read here.

Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national, is the sole survivor of the plane crash that has killed at least 241 people. He was in seat 11A on the London-bound Boeing 787 flight.

India’s state broadcaster DD News spoke to Ramesh, who is currently being treated in hospital.

“I still cannot believe how I made it out alive,” he said.

“At first, I thought I was going to die. I managed to open my eyes, unfastened my seat belt and tried to exit the plane.”

Ramesh said the side of the plane he was sitting on did not hit the hostel building and was closer to the ground floor.

“My door broke down and I saw a small space. I tried to get out of the plane,” he said.

Ramesh says he saw the aircraft crew and its engers die in front of his eyes.

A video showing Ramesh walking away from the burning aircraft quickly went viral. He said he sustained burn injuries on his left hand and was taken to the hospital by ambulance soon after.

Early Friday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ramesh at the civil hospital, where he is currently being treated.

Image source, DD News

Image source, Narendra Modi/X

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the family of former Gujarat chief minister, Vijay Rupani, who was killed in the plane crash on Thursday.

Rupani was a member of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

Modi wrote on X: "It is unimaginable that Vijaybhai is not in our midst. I’ve known him for decades. We worked together, shoulder to shoulder, including during some of the most challenging times."

Modi described Rupani as "humble and hardworking" and said he had served "diligently" as Gujarat’s chief minister.

"Will always cherish the interactions we had. My thoughts are with his family and friends in this hour of grief," he said.

Jugal Purohit
Reporting from Ahmedabad

When the Air India plane went down on Thursday, it took lives of not just the 241 people on board, as well as some who were not on the plane.

Dr Minakshi Parikh, the dean of the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital, says four of their students died as the plane crashed into buildings on the campus.

“There were also four relatives of our doctors who were on the campus when the aircraft crashed - they too were killed," she said.

The bodies of the crash victims have been brought to the hospital's mortuary. Staff have been busy trying to identify bodies as hundreds of relatives wait anxiously.

“We are relying only on DNA matching to identify them. And it is something where we simply cannot rush or afford mistakes. We are working with sincerity. We want relatives to understand, and be a bit patient. We want to hand over [the bodies] as soon as possible,” she told us.

Asked how she was personally dealing with the situation, she said: “Maybe the shock will sink in later. Right now, for me and my team, there is no option but to rise to the challenge.”

Bhargav Parikh, BBC Gujarati

Image source, Bhumi Chauhan

Student Bhumi Chauhan was supposed to be on the Air India aircraft that crashed - but she was denied entry to the flight as she was late.

"Earlier I thought that Ahmedabad's traffic would cost me my ticket money and my job," she tells BBC's Gujarati service.

"Even though I lost my money, I am happy that my life was saved.

"We had reached Ahmedabad on time from Ankleshwar, but due to Ahmedabad's traffic, I reached the airport five minutes late, due to which I was not allowed to enter the airport."

Our reporter Yogita Limaye brings you more now about Akash, the 15-year-old who was killed in the building that the plane crashed into.

Read his story here.

Andrew Clarance
Reporting from Ahmedabad

A police official at the post-mortem room has told us that six dead bodies have been released so far to families who were able to identify them based on facial features.

No DNA matched bodies have been released yet as that will take more time.

Archana Shukla
India business correspondent

In Mumbai, I met the family of 34-year-old Saineeta Chakravarti, one of the crew on the ill-fated Air India flight.

“Please come back, my good girl. Mumma is waiting,” her mother Rema Chakravarti keeps repeating these words through heavy sobs. She is still struggling to come to with the loss.

There is a stream of visitors coming to the house, located in the narrow lanes of Juhu-Koliwada slums here in Mumbai. Each time someone entered - a friend, a neighbour, a journalist - Rema broke down all over again. Saineeta’s father, Abin Chakravarti, sat quietly nearby, looking lost.

"Saineeta really took care of us, feeding the family and ing her mother’s cancer treatment," he said, breaking into tears.

Neighbours and friends are helping the couple - bringing food, answering phone calls and dealing with news cameras. One of them told me he’ll be going with Abin Chakravarti to Ahmedabad this evening for the DNA sampling to identify the body.

“She loved flying — that was her ion,” her friend and ex-colleague Hemant Chandan said.

Abin pointed to a plastic aeroplane model hanging on the door alongside Saineeta's bags and guitar - a painful reminder of their daughter’s ion that brought her happiness, but also tragedy.

Image source, Getty Images

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has said he is in touch with the UK Foreign Secretary as well as the foreign ministers of Portugal and Canada.

"Expressed our profound condolences and offered fullest in this hour of grief," he wrote in a post on X.

There were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian and 12 crew on the plane.

The lone survivor is a British national.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Ahmedabad

Dr JS Pillai, who is part of the forensic team at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, told me that they are trying to identify bodies as soon as possible.

He said the team was following procedures set up by Interpol. “We are using three main identifying techniques. First is the fingerprint - if it’s available. Second is dental structures. Third is DNA testing, which is the gold standard,” he said.

He added that bodies will be handed over once one of the three methods help in identifying the victim.

Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

It has just gone 14:05 local time in India and 09:35 BST here in London. If you are just ing our coverage let's quickly take you through the key developments in the last few hours:

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the scene of Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad which is known to have killed more than 240 people
• After viewing the accident site, Modi then went to a nearby hospital to meet some of those injured in the disaster
• Grieving families have been identifying bodies at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital - all but one of the 242 people on board the London Gatwick-bound Air India flight died when it crashed into a doctors' hostel
• The sole survivor from the flight - a British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh - is being treated in hospital
• Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 60, is among those who died - he was a pilot with more than 8,200 hours of flying experience and was just months away from retirement
• In the UK, tributes have been paid to some of the 53 Britons who were onboard the flight - including a family from Gloucester and a family from Northamptonshire
• At least eight people who were not on the Air India aircraft have also died in the crash, a senior health official has told the BBC
• The cause of the crash is still not known and investigators are still searching for the two black boxes which will provide more details

Yogita Limaye
Reporting from Ahmedabad

At the hospital, we met 50-year-old Prahlad Thakor, who worked at the cafeteria at the doctors' hospital. He was out delivering lunchboxes when the plane crashed into the building.

But he has no news of his wife, 45-year-old Sarla Thakor, and their granddaughter, two-year-old Aadya, who were there.

Mr Thakor submitted DNA samples at the hospital yesterday and doctors have told him that it will take 72 hours to see if there are any matches with the bodies that they've found.

So we are seeing people here coming to the hospital with no confirmed news of what's happened to their loved ones and just waiting for DNA test results - or hoping that they might still be found at the site.

Through the morning, many ambulances have come out of the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad where families have gathered. But the ambulances aren't carrying survivors - they are for the bodies of victims.

BBC correspondent Samira Hussain, who is at the scene, says she saw one grieving woman whose cries echoed through the compound.

Image source, Family handout

Gloucestershire family Akeel Nanabawa and Hannaa Vorajee were killed in the crash and died alongside their four-year-old daughter Sara.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Imam Abdullah says the community is still coming to with the enormity of what happened on Thursday in Ahmedabad.

"This young family was incredibly close-knit - devoted parents and their beautiful young daughter," he says.

"They were comionate, active of the community who regularly volunteered at our local Islamic school and for various local projects. They were widely loved and deeply respected.

"His quiet generosity, her warmth and kindness, and their daughter’s bright, joyful spirit made a lasting impact on everyone who knew them.

"She was a ray of sunshine in her school, and they were a pillar of strength in our lives."

• Yesterday, the headteacher of Sara's primary school, also paid tribute to the Gloucester family.

After a painful night of waiting, several families are still camped out outside Ahmedabad's civil hospital.

Many have submitted DNA samples to identify their loved ones and it will take a while for bodies to be handed over.

Here's what the BBC's Vikas Pandey saw at the scene.

In the last few moments, Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a message of condolence to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to Beijing's state media.

President Xi also "sent a message of condolence to King Charles of the United Kingdom over the significant British casualties", state broadcaster CCTV said.

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a veteran Air India pilot with nearly three decades of experience, is among those who died in the crash.

With more than 8,200 hours of flying experience, Captain Sabharwal was the senior-most crew member on the flight. He was a Line Training Captain (LTC), a role entrusted to only the most seasoned pilots responsible for mentoring younger crew .

The 60-year-old pilot was just months away from retirement and had planned to spend more time with his 82-year-old father, who is a former official with India's civil aviation regulatory body, The Indian Express newspaper reported.

“He was very reserved, disciplined. We used to see him come and go in uniform often, but he was a very reserved person,” Sabharwal’s neighbour in Mumbai told the newspaper.

The co-pilot, First Officer Clive Kundar, had logged approximately 1,100 hours of flight time and was certified to operate the Dreamliner that crashed.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Ahmedabad

At least eight people who were not on the Air India plane have also died in the crash, a senior health official in Ahmedabad has told the BBC.

Four of them were medical students who were living in one of the buildings where the plane crashed, she said.

The other four were relatives of other students who were living in the hostel.

We are just hearing from our colleagues in Thailand that an Air India flight (AI379) from the southern island of Phuket, bound for New Delhi, was diverted back to the airport after reports of a bomb threat on Friday morning.

Phuket International Airport said the pilot alerted air traffic control at 09:30 local time (03:30BST) of a message about a bomb threat found on the plane.

An emergency landing was requested.

The plane, carrying 156 engers, which took off at 0915 local time landed safely at 11:38, according to flight tracking websites.

Phuket airport said on Facebook they have activated an airport contingency plan and will provide further updates.