By Small plane crashes into Beijing’s tallest building, authorities seal off roads
Footage shared to social media showed debris falling from the 109-storey tower. (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov)
In short:
Bystanders in Beijing have said an aircraft roughly the size of a car has crashed into Beijing’s tallest building.
Police have cordoned off the area and prevented some people from taking pictures.
Dozens of police cars and several fire trucks line the roads around the building.
A plane about the size of a car has crashed into Beijing’s tallest building, CITIC Tower, according to bystanders.
Police closed off roads around the skyscraper and stopped passers-by from filming the scene.
The building, known as CITIC Tower or China Zun, is a 108-storey skyscraper in Beijing’s central business district.
It is the headquarters of the state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group.
The surface of the Citic Tower also known as Zun Tower now appears damaged. (AP: Han Guan Ng)
There was a heavy police presence at the site, with some approach roads closed to cars, according to Reuters.
Police prevented some people from taking pictures and asked others to delete those they had taken while ushering people away from the building.
Two glass panels on a high floor were damaged.
There was no immediate official comment.
Beijing’s municipal government did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters outside of business hours.
Police and security have set up cordons around the building. (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov)
A courier whom Reuters spoke to near the building said he rushed over to CITIC Tower around 6 pm local time from a nearby location after hearing a loud crash as a aircraft about the size of a car hit the building.
“It was so loud – louder than fireworks,” he said.
He said he had shot a video of the aircraft sticking out of the building, but later deleted it because he was scared of getting caught by police.
Witnesses have reported police stopping bystanders from taking photos. (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov)
Another courier whom Reuters spoke to said he came to the scene after seeing unverified social media images showing wreckage of a small aircraft on a road next to the building.
Social media posts of the building on Friday were quickly removed from Chinese social media.
A search of the building’s name on the Xiaohongshu app returned only posts dated Thursday.
Dozens of police cars and several fire trucks lined the roads around the building.
A police officer told Reuters journalists to depart from the scene. Asked why they had to leave, the police officer said: “We all know why!”
Reuters
Originally published on www.abc.net.au — View original