Astana residents give blood and carry flowers to the Azerbaijani Embassy after the plane crash

Astana residents give blood and carry flowers to the Embassy of Azerbaijan after the crash of the plane of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) in Aktau. This was reported in the press service of the administration of the Kazakh capital on December 25.

"In Astana, residents carry flowers to the building of the Azerbaijani Embassy in connection with the tragedy that occurred on December 25 in Aktau, where an Azerbaijani Airlines plane crashed. <...> Astana residents, sharing the grief with the Azerbaijani people, began to carry flowers to the building of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Kazakhstan in memory of the victims," the message on the website of the Astana administration reads.

Earlier in the day it was reported that medics from Astana were called to the hospital in Aktau to help the victims of the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.

Tragedy in Aktau: Baku-Grozny passenger plane crashed

A fire started at the scene and there are survivors

A passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), heading on the route Baku - Grozny, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau earlier in the day. The crew attempted to make an emergency landing at the city's airport, but the plane went down and caught fire, the fire was extinguished. Preliminarily, the cause of the plane crash could have been a collision with a flock of birds.

AZAL published the list of passengers of the crashed airplane near Aktau, it includes 62 people, 32 survivors in total, the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan said. The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan reported that 16 Russians were flying in the plane. According to the Russian Embassy in the republic, 10 of them survived and were hospitalized.

A criminal case has been opened under the article "Violation of safety rules in the operation of vehicles, causing the death of two or more persons by negligence". Search and rescue operations continue at the site of the tragedy. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared December 26 a day of mourning in the country for the victims of the plane crash.