Plane crashes onto Philippine slum,11 killed

MANILA, Dec 10, (AFP): A four-seater cargo plane crashed onto a Philippine slum Saturday, sparking a fire that killed 11 people including two children and left at least another 20 injured, officials said. Rescuers recovered the burned bodies of nine adults, a child and an infant from the crash site near Manila airport, Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine National Red Cross, told AFP. "The crash set fire to at least 30 houses. These are shanties, made of light materials," Pang told AFP in a telephone interview. She said those killed included the pilot and the co-pilot of the aircraft, which aviation regulators described as a locally-owned Beechcraft that had taken off from Manila airport minutes earlier. Florencio Bernabe, the mayor of Paranaque district where the crash occurred, said at least 20 other injured victims had been taken to hospital. Pang also told AFP an unspecified number of people had been taken to hospital with burn injuries. The blaze engulfed a nearby elementary school, she said, but it was empty at the time because it was a weekend.