Ramesh Viswashkumar, the only known survivor out of the 242 people onboard an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday, had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out, police said.
Speaking from his hospital bed, the 40-year-old told Indian media that he was a British national and was travelling to Britain with his brother after visiting family in India.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,” Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times.
It was not clear whether Viswashkumar managed to jump out before the plane made impact.
Social media footage shown on Indian news channels showed a man in a bloodstained white t-shirt and dark pants limping on a street and being helped by a medic.
The man had bruises on his face and a goatee beard, resembling photographs of Viswashkumar in hospital after the crash that were published by local media.