'I stood up and ran': Miraculous survival of Air India passenger with 241 confirmed deaths

Air India confirmed a lone survivor out of the 242 people aboard an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad soon after takeoff on Thursday.

Viswashkumar Ramesh had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out, police said.

Speaking from his hospital bed, the 40-year-old told Indian media that he was a British national, and was travelling back home with his brother after visiting family in India.

"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. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital," Ramesh told the Hindustan Times.

Social media footage shown on Indian news channels showed a man in a bloodstained white T-shirt and dark pants limping on a street and being helped by a medic. The man had bruises on his face and a goatee beard, resembling photographs of Ramesh in hospital after the crash that were published by local media.

Reuters could not immediately verify the video, in which people gathered around the man and asked him where the other passengers were, to which he replied "they're all inside."

A photo of Ramesh's boarding pass shown online by the Hindustan Times showed that he was seated in seat 11A of the plane bound for London's Gatwick Airport.

He told the paper his brother, Ajay, had been seated in a different row on the plane and asked for help to find him.

A member of Ramesh's family based in Britain, who requested anonymity, told Reuters over the phone that he had survived and that the family was in touch with him, but declined to share further details.

Ajay Valgi, a cousin of Ramesh who lives in Leicester, central England, told the BBC that Ramesh spoke by phone to confirm he was all right. "He only said that he was fine, nothing else," Valgi said.

Valgi said the family had not heard anything about his brother. "We're not doing well. We're all upset," he said.

Ramesh is married with one child, a boy, he added.

The aircraft came down in a residential area of Ahmedabad, in northwestern India, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunchtime — the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.

Air India posted to X, confirming the deaths of 229 passengers and all 12 crew members, with the lone survivor being treated in hospital.