Search for bodies ends at site of Nigeria air crash

Nigerian rescuers have ended search operations at the site of a plane crash that killed at least 159 people in the country's largest city to concentrate on clearing debris, an official said Wednesday.

While formal searches have ended, workers will remain on the lookout for human remains while clearing debris from the site on the northern outskirts of Lagos. A total of 153 bodies have so far been recovered.

"We're not doing full searching operations," said Yushau Shuaib, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency. "What we are doing now is we are trying to clear the place and fumigate the area."

All 153 people on board the Dana Air MD83 died when it crashed into a neighbourhood near the airport in Lagos on Sunday afternoon, while at least six people on the ground were killed.

The 22-year-old plane plowed into a two-storey apartment block, a church, a house and a textbook warehouse. The ruins of the apartment block were torn down on Tuesday.

"The search and rescue operation has ended with the demolition of the affected building. We are now moving the next phase which is disaster victim identification," National Emergency Management Agency official Ibrahim Farinloye told AFP.

Farinloye said DNA tests would be conducted to enable relatives to claim the the remains of their relatives.

Nigerian aviation authorities on Tuesday suspended the operating licence of Dana Air pending investigation into the crash.

Local media said the crash was Nigeria's worst since 1992, when a military C-130 went down after takeoff in Lagos, killing around 200 people on board.

The plane's two engines were reported to have failed before it crashed, the country's civil aviation chief has said.