DUSHANBE -- One Chinese citizen was confirmed killed Sunday in the crash of a Boeing-737 passenger plane near Bishkek, capital of the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, the Chinese embassy said on Monday.
Yang Shuying, the press liaison officer of the embassy, said that according to Kyrgyz authorities, the Chinese victim was a 54-year-old man named Ma Huiqing, who was doing business in Bishkek as of the disaster. The embassy has established contact with his family and been offering assistance in dealing with the victim's funeral affairs.
The plane belonging to Kyrgyzstan's private company Itek-Air crashed shortly after takeoff from Bishkek's airport, killing 65 people and leaving 25 others injured. The plane was to make a flight from Bishkek to Mashhad, Iran.
Apart from the flight's six-member crew and an airline staffer, 24 Kyrgyz passengers, 52 Iranians, two Canadians, one Turk, three Kazakh passengers and one Chinese were also aboard when the plane crashed.
