The cargo plane which crashed in Kavala, northern Greece carried 11 tonnes of Serbian-made weapons – including landmines – to Bangladesh, Serbia’s Defence Minister Nebojša Stefanovic confirmed.
Mr Stefanovic said it had included “illuminating mortar mines and training (mines)”, adding that the flight “had all necessary permissions in accordance with international regulations.”
According to a director from the arms dealer Valir who spoke to the BBC there were landmines on board, however, a spokesman for Bangladesh’s military public relations office told the BBC’s Bengali service that the plane contained mortar shells bought from Serbia for the training of army and border guards.
The air carrier, departing from Serbia, due to make stops in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and India before reaching Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, was reportedly being operated by Meridian, a Ukrainian cargo airline with eight Ukrainian crew members reportedly dead.
People living within two kilometres of the site where the Antonov-12 came down have been warned to stay indoors. Eyewitness video showed the plane on fire and a huge fireball as it crashed.
Drones were used to survey the site of the wreckage out of caution, while Greek state-run TV station ERT reported the army, explosives experts and Greek Atomic Energy Commission staff were not approaching the site until it was deemed safe.
“The (air) measurements at the moment have not shown anything but nonetheless instability in the field was observed,” Lieutenant General Marios Apostolidis, of the Northern Greece Fire Brigade, told reporters.
“In other words, intense smoke and heat, as well as a white substance that we do not recognise, so a special armed forces team has to inform us what it is and whether we can enter the field.”
The pilot had reportedly requested an emergency landing at Kavala airport in Greece, due to an engine problem shortly after take off, but was unable to reach the runway.