Comoros crash child survivor in hospital

A teenage girl swimming among dead bodies and plane debris has been plucked from the wreckage of a passenger jet that crashed into the Indian Ocean.

The lone survivor was pulled from cold, choppy seas about 4am local time.

"We tried to throw a life buoy — she could not grab it," a man identified as one of the girl's rescuers told France's Europe 1 radio.

"I had to jump in the water to get her.

"She was shaking, shaking. We put four covers on her. We gave her hot, sugary water. We simply asked her name, village."

Airport authorities in Moroni have identified the girl as Bakari Baya.

The 14-year-old lives with her family in Marseille, southern France, and was travelling with her mother.

A Comoran government spokesman said she was originally from the south-east village of Nioumadzaha. "We are trying to get her back in shape, but we are not asking her too many questions as not to tire her," Abdallah Ibrahim, the Marseille coordinator of the Comoros Solidarity Union, said.

"Depending on her condition, she could be evacuated to France or Madagascar."

Bakari is being treated in a hospital in the Comoros where she is in a condition that is "not worrisome", a Comoros Red Cross spokeswoman has said.

Bakari is the only survivor so far after the Yemeni Airbus jet with 153 people on board crashed into the Indian Ocean as it came in to land in the Comoros islands.

Local fishermen also found wreckage, passengers' handbags and other personal effects.

The French army has arrived from Reunion with zodiacs and other equipment, and a French helicopter will take part Wednesday in the search operations at sea, said Comoran government spokesman Kamaleddin Afraitane.

"Technicians from Yemen arrived in Moroni this afternoon with investigators to determine the cause of the accident," he added.

It was the second time in less than a month that an Airbus has crashed into the ocean. This time French authorities said the Yemeni carrier was under surveillance and that the 19-year-old jet was banned from French airspace.