Indian flight crashes with 242 on board

An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner carrying 242 passengers crashed shortly after taking off from Gujarat's Ahmedabad airport, NDTV reports. 

The flight was going to London. It went down between 1 pm and 2 pm, local time.

The airline in a statement said flight No. AI 171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident On Thursday. 

"At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest," Air India said in a statement.

Visuals from the site show a thick plume of grey smoke rising from the ground. At least two dozen ambulances have arrived and some have taken away injured people to hospital. The police have diverted traffic from the area.

Tracking website Flightradar24 says it received the last signal from the aircraft at 625 feet (190m) "just seconds after take off."

It appears to have crashed in a residential area, BBC reports.