18 dead as plane crashes into lake in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A commercial plane crashed into a lake in South Sudan on Sunday and killed 18 people, a local official said.

The 19-seater commercial Baby Air plane had been travelling from the capital, Juba, the minister of information for the town of Yirol, Taban Abel Aguek, told The Associated Press.

Officials were investigating the cause of the crash.

Among the dead were at least three children, authorities said.

The three survivors are a 6-year-old child, an adult man and an Italian doctor with an aid organisation who was in surgery and in serious condition, Aguek said.

“There were people everywhere,” the official said of the crash site.

Yirol is in the central part of the civil war-torn East African country.