The sprawling BJ (Byramjee Jeejeebhoy) Medical College complex in Ahmedabad, where the ill-fated London-bound Air India flight crashed into a hostel building on Thursday afternoon, 12 June, has now become a hotspot for visiting VIPs and media crews from all over the country.

While the exact number of casualties on this huge campus is yet to be ascertained — several people are missing, both residents and employees/itinerant entrepreneurs — the college hospital is acting as the site of DNA testing arrangements to match samples for identification of dead passengers.   

The tragic loss of several of the MBBS students — whose number has been put at 5 officially till last night — plus a young doctor has cast a pall of gloom over the medical fraternity in the country.

An appeal from the Medical Students Network (MSN) of the IMA (Indian Medical Association) to the rest of Gujarat and to adjacent states — Rajasthan and Maharashtra — called for on-site help, including but not limited to field volunteers, a blood donation drive, financial assistance and any other logistical help possible to render.

“This is not just a tragedy for Gujarat. It is a tragedy for the entire medical student fraternity of our nation. Each life lost is a blow to the future of healthcare and humanity. In this moment of sorrow, IMA MSN stands firmly with you, shoulder to shoulder, ready to assist in every possible way,” said the release signed by Dr Shiv Kumar Utture, president of IMA, MSN and other signatories.

Media reports said at least 24 people, including 5 medical students, were killed on the ground as the plane crashed into the hostel building in Meghaninagar area of Ahmedabad.

Confirming at least four deaths at the medical college, Dr Minakshi Parikh, dean, said two of them were first-year students and two were second-year students. She said the wife of one of the doctors was killed as well in the accident. Two more students were missing at the time of the interview, while another 20 were injured, five of them being in a “serious” condition, she'd said.

“Three first-year students and two second-year students are seriously injured while two third-year students are not reachable,” she said. Also among the missing are three family members of another doctor, she said.

“Since the bodies that came in could not be identified, we made up teams of students to call up each student and that is how we got an idea of the casualties,” Dr Parikh said. She said forensic scientists had arrived to help with the identification of victims.

Dhananjay Dwivedi, principal secretary, health and family welfare department, who has been appointed as the officer on special duty at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital (to which the medical college is also attached), said the state government has set up DNA testing centres to expedite identification of victims and requested their families to submit DNA samples.

“The hostel of medical students, staff quarters of the hospital and other residential areas are located in the area where the plane crashed. Several people were injured… About 50 injured people were taken to hospital, where they are reported to be in a stable condition,” Dwivedi said earlier in the day.

The Ahmedabad Civil Hospital has shared two helpline numbers for the relatives of the passengers and other injured: 6357373831 and 6357373841.