AHMEDABAD, India: More than 200 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from the western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, authorities said, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.

At least one person is known to have survived, police said, and the man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after take-off.

The plane came down in a residential area, crashing onto a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunch hour. It was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital.

City police chief G.S. Malik told Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site. Vidhi Chaudhary, another senior police officer, said police found one survivor who was in seat 11A, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital.

"Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed," 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online.

"It all happened so quickly," he told the paper from his hospital bed.

"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," he said. "Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital."

He said that his brother Ajay was seated in a different row on the plane. "He was travelling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him," he said.

Police chief Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. Federal minister C.R. Patil said the dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

"Chances are there could be some more survivors among those who are in hospital," police officer Chaudhary told Reuters. "There are also chances that the death toll will go up. More than 50 injured are in hospitals at present."