London Southend Airport will remain closed until further notice after a plane crashed in what witnesses described as a “fireball”.

Essex Police said it was alerted to a 12-metre plane on fire at the site in Southend-on-Sea shortly before 16:00 BST on Sunday.

Southend Airport said it would continue to update the public on any developments, and that passengers due to travel on Monday should contact their airline.

There has been no confirmation on the number of casualties.

Dutch company Zeusch Aviation confirmed that its SUZ1 flight had been “involved in an accident” at London Southend Airport.

Based out of Lelystad Airport in The Netherlands, the company said they were actively supporting authorities with the investigation, and that their thoughts were with “everyone who has been affected”.

The plane had flown from the Greek capital Athens to Pula in Croatia on Sunday before heading to Southend, with a planned return to Lelystad Airport that evening.

(BBC News)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was reportedly slightly injured during one of Israel’s attacks on Iran last month.

Iran’s state Fars news agency, close to the revolutionary guard, says that on 16 June, six bombs targeted both access and entry points of a secret underground facility in Tehran where Pezeshkian was attending an emergency meeting of the Supreme National Security Council.

The president is said to have suffered leg injuries as he and others escaped through an emergency shaft. Iran is now reported to be following leads of infiltration by Israeli agents.

The Fars report has not been independently verified. Israel has not publicly commented on the report.

Videos posted on social media during the 12-day war showed repeated strikes against a mountain side in north-western Tehran.

Now it has emerged that the strikes on the fourth day of war targeted a secret underground facility in Tehran where Iran’s top leaders were at the time.

The Fars news agency report says the Israeli strikes blocked all the six entry and exit points, and also the ventilation system.

The electricity to the facility was also cut off – but Pezeshkian managed to reach safety.

The Supreme National Security Council is Iran’s top decision-making body after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Last week, Pezeshkian accused Israel of trying to kill him – a claim denied by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who said “regime change” had not been not a goal of the war.

Israel wiped out many of top IRGC and army commanders at the very start of the war.

Iranian leaders admit they were taken completely by surprise, and there was a decision-making paralysis for at least the first 24 hours after the attack.

Israel officials admitted that Ayatollah Khamenei was also the target – but that they had lost track of him when he was moved to a secure secret location, cut off to a great extent from the outside world.

There are still many questions about how Israel had gathered critical intelligence about the whereabouts of Iran’s top officials and commanders – not to mention the locations of sensitive secret facilities.

On 13 June, Israel launched a surprise attack on nuclear and military sites in Iran, saying it acted to prevent Tehran from making nuclear weapons.

Iran – who retaliated with aerial attacks on Israel – denies seeking to develop nuclear weapons and says its enrichment of uranium is for peaceful purposes.

On 22 June, the US’s Air Force and Navy carried out air and missile strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities.

US President Donald Trump later said the attack “obliterated” the facilities, even as some US intelligence agencies have taken a more cautious view.

(BBC News)

A preliminary report into the Air India crash last month finds that both fuel control switches were in the cut-off position – a step that usually turns off the engines – moments before the plane crashed.

A cockpit voice recording suggests confusion between the two pilots. One is heard asking his colleague why he “did the cut-off” – and the other pilot replies he did not do so, the report says.

An Air India spokesperson says it continues to “fully cooperate” with authorities; Boeing says its thoughts remain with victims’ loved ones.

BBC India correspondent Soutik Biswas has spoken to experts to understand what the report tells us – and what it doesn’t.

At least 260 people were killed in the crash, and the sole survivor – British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh – escaped the wreckage through an opening in the fuselage.