19:38: Bin Yameen, a senior police official in Islamabad, tells Reuters: "Dead bodies are lying all around and very few might have survived in the accident."
19:34: The Express Tribune reports twenty bodies have been recovered from the wreckage. No survivors or bodies have yet reached the nearest hospital although it has been more than an hour and a half, says an Express Tribune reporter.
Emergency has been declared in hospitals and doctors have been called in for duty.
19:32: On Twitter, a Pakistani tweets that authorities at Islamabad airport have turned off the news channels and switched to entertainment ones.
19:30: At Islamabad airport, hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarm ticket counters desperately seeking information, reports AP. A large cluster of people also surrounds the list of passengers on the flight, which is posted near the Airblue ticket counter.
"Nobody is guiding anyone. People are running from one counter to another," says Arshad Mahmood, whose brother, Maulana Nawab Ulhasan, a prayer leader in a town near Islamabad, was on the flight.
"I'm praying for his survival, but I think there is little hope," Mahmood says.
Arshad Ali tells AP his cousin, Raza Ali, was supposed to be on the flight but missed it in Karachi on his way from Canada.
"We are happy he missed the flight, but things here are in shambles at the airport,'' Ali said. "For God's sake, take care of the worried people, the relatives of those who were on the unfortunate plane. They have no information and are just running here and there."
19:25: Ten bodies have been recovered, reports Pakistani website ARY News.
19:19: The Express Tribune reports there were five children and two infants on board, according to latest details released by CAA.
19:18: Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed says the plane,which was an Airbus 321, flight number ED202, was no more than eight years old and it had no known technical issues. He added that to his knowledge, the pilots had not sent any emergency signals.
19:16: According to the Express Tribune, 15 dead bodies can be seen on the site, including those of two women. The bodies are badly burnt and are beyond recognition.
An infantry battalion and three helicopters are engaged in rescue operations.
19:15: Interior Minister Abdul Rehman Malik, quoting Civil Aviation rescue officials, told Pakistan's Geo TV that as many as five injured people had been rescued.
He said the crash site was uneven and thickly covered with trees, so rescue helicopters were the only way to reach survivors.
He had also ordered rescue officials to recover the plane's black box to determine the cause of the crash.
19:14: Mohammed Usman, an official at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, said dozens of relatives of passengers gathered there were crying and desperate to get information about their loved ones.
Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY news channel that he was on a family outing in the hills when he saw the plane, looking unsteady in the air.
"The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down," he said, adding he heard the crash.
19:12: Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed said an investigation would be launched, but that for now the focus was to find survivors.
19:09: Civil aviation official Pervez George says the model of the airline that crashed was an Airbus 321. The Airbus 320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the 321 model, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988. Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network's database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.
19:07: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has ordered the Defence Ministry to hold an inquiry. The flight was asked to circle above the airport and delay landing as the Islamabad airport was busy.
19:03: The pilot is among the dead so far recovered the Express Tribune reports.
19:00: Pakistan's Express Tribune television station reportsthat at least 45 people have survived the crash and were taken to a local hospital in Islamabad. Ten bodies have so far been found.
