>> Plane carrying 152 crashes in Pakistan
Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of more than 100 people after a Pakistani jet crashed in Islamabad on Wednesday and there are still no signs of survivors, the city\'s police chief said.
"More than 100 bodies have been found. We have not yet found any survivor or injured," Bani Amin told AFP.
"The search is continuing," he added.
The Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue crashed into the Margalla Hills overlooking the Pakistani capital on Wednesday, while coming into land with at least 150 people on board following a flight from Karachi.
Rescue officials said pieces of charred flesh and body parts were littered around the smouldering wreckage, partially buried on a remote hillside in the deadliest crash involving a Pakistani passenger jet in 18 years.
Private airline Airblue\'s flight 202 from Karachi was coming into land at Islamabad\'s Benazir Bhutto International airport when witnesses saw a jet flying at unusually low altitude and then heard a loud boom.
The plane disintegrated into a gorge between two hills, enveloped in cloud and some distance from the road, severely hampering rescue efforts and limiting visibility for helicopters hovering overhead, said an AFP correspondent.
"I saw a big ball of smoke and fire everywhere with big pieces of aircraft rolling down the hill," said police official Haji Taj Gul.
"The plane was flying very low. Then we heard a loud noise," said Wajih-ur Rehman, a resident of the smart E-7 neighbourhood in the Margalla foothills.
The civil aviation authority said all possible causes would be investigated, including terrorism and bad weather, although officials gave no indication that an attack might have been to blame.
"In the last conversation with the control tower, the pilot had been given landing clearance and the plane was proceeding normally for landing before it crashed into the hills," said Riaz-ul-Haq, the authority\'s deputy director.
"The investigation teams will probe every possible reason behind the crash ranging from the bad weather to terrorism."
Police said rescue workers had recovered the remains of more than 100 people from the wreckage.
Islamabad administration chief Imtiaz Inayat said there had been no confirmed reports of any survivors, after earlier suggestions that at least five passengers might have survived.
Rescue official Arshad Javed told AFP: "All we could see were charred hands or feet. I collected two heads, two legs and two hands in a bag.
"No survivor was found. We shouted if anyone was there alive, but heard no voice," he said.
"The wreckage of the plane is buried under the debris. First machines have to be deployed there to remove debris of the hill and then we can reach to pull out bodies or survivors -- if any."
The government declared a day of national mourning and called off a cabinet meeting as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed his grief over the "tragic incident" and offered prayers for the dead.
Anguished families were in tears after hearing of the disaster while waiting to meet their relatives at the Islamabad arrivals terminal.
"We cannot explain our agony, we don\'t know if he is alive," said Bilal Haider, who had come to collect his younger brother Abbas returning from a trip to Karachi for a job interview.
Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed told AFP the Airbus 321 took off from Karachi before 8:00 am (0300 GMT) with 144 passengers and six crew members on board, and speculated that the bad weather could have been at fault.
"There was no technical fault in the plane when it took off for Islamabad. The plane was thoroughly checked," he said.
In a statement, Airbus said the single-aisle plane was a relatively young 10 years in age, and the European company offered its full assistance to Pakistani investigators.
Ambulances queued along the nearest road and anxious crowds gathered on the approach to the Margalla Hills to await news.
"It\'s a big tragedy. It\'s really a big tragedy," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Express TV. State television read out the passenger list. No foreigners were believed to be among the dead.
Airblue is one of Pakistan\'s most respected airlines. It has been operating only since 2004, using new Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft on domestic routes and international services to Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Manchester.
Pakistan enjoys a relatively good air safety record.
The most recent fatal commercial crash was a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 that came down in July 2006, killing 45 people on takeoff from the central city of Multan, bound for Lahore.
The deadliest civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet was a PIA Airbus A300 that crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people in September 1992.
