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Seven people were killed in the plane crash at the Shoreham Airshow, British media reported. At least one victim has been taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital in a critical condition.

According to the South East Coast Ambulance Service, all of the victims died at the scene. Fourteen people were treated for minor injures at the crash site.

The plane that crashed was a Hawker Hunter, a British fighter aircraft. It hit several cars on the nearby A27 highway, before ending up in a bush, police said in a statement. Roads near the site were closed after the incident.

The pilot was taken to the hospital alive, but in a critical condition, police said. He is "fighting for his life" at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

The casualties are all believed to have occurred on the road, the Royal Air Forces Association said in a statement, adding that it is believed no one has been injured on the airfield.

The jet was performing a loop when it crashed at the end of the maneuver, according to eyewitness reports.

"The Hunter came from the airport and flew over us and did a loop the loop to go back around to the airport, but at the bottom of the loop it just seemed to lose power and went into the ground belly down in a massive ball of flames," Tony Wallace from Shoreham, who watched the crash from nearby Mill Hill told the Independent.


"It went down on the A27 by the lights near the airport. That road has been chockablock all day and we can see stationary cars there now... It looks like a warzone," he added.

"We were waiting for it to go back up and it didn't - it seemed to kind of split in two," Ailish Southall who was driving along the A27 with her two children told the BBC. The eyewitness added that the plane came down across the road from them, so they had to run from their car to avoid the debris.

The organizers of the airshow confirmed there had been "a major incident outside the airfield boundary." Posting on Twitter, they said emergency services were responding to the incident.

Images emerged on social media showing black smoke rising into a clear blue sky, from the place where the jet is believed to have crashed.

The Hawker Hunter fighter jet was widely used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the 1950s, for both reconnaissance and as a fighter-bomber. The aircraft also served a number of international air forces, and was in use until recently. The RAF still uses the jet for training.