* Dana Air plane had 147 people on board – source

* Witnesses say it crashed into building

* No official word on casualties

REUTERS

LAGOS, June 3 (Reuters) – A passenger plane carrying nearly 150 people crashed into a densely populated part of Lagos on Sunday, in what looked like a major disaster in Nigeria’s commercial hub.

There was no early word from airline or civil aviation authority officials in the West African country on casualties.

A source at the national emergency management agency, declining to be identified, said the aircraft belonged to privately owned domestic carrier Dana Air and had 147 people on board.

Thousands of people crowded around the wreckage, which was billowing black smoke, in the Agege suburb of the city, not far from Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed Airport. Witnesses said they saw the plane strike a building and burst into flames.

Some looked stunned, while others took pictures with their mobile phones of the crash scene, in a run down part of the city where ramshackle tin-roofed houses line mud roads.

Neither Dana Air nor the civil aviation authority were available for comment.

Air crashes are not uncommon in Nigeria, Africa’s second biggest economy, which has a poor airline safety record.

Dana Air’s website says it operates Boeing MD-83 planes to cities around Nigeria out of Murtala Muhammed Airport.

SOURCE REUTERS