At least 11 people were killed after a UPS cargo plane crashed during take off from an airport in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday evening, the state’s governor said.

Andy Beshear said the death toll is expected to rise. The plane’s three crew members are thought to be among the dead after the freight plane exploded as it departed Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport at around 17:15 local time (22:15 GMT), he said.

The left engine caught fire and fell from the wing during takeoff, the National Transportation and Safety Board said on Wednesday.

Another 11 people were injured when the plane crashed, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Officials said those who survived had suffered “very significant” injuries in the incident. Crews were still searching for other victims, as multiple people remain unaccounted for.

A preliminary investigation is under way but officials have said it is too early to say what caused the crash, though surveillance footage and data from the plane is helping piece it together.

Investigators have recovered the cockpit flight recorder and the flight data recorder, known as the black box, said Todd Inman with the NTSB, the agency leading the investigation.

In an update on Wednesday, Inman said that CCTV surviellance footage showed the left engine of the aircraft “detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll”. The video has not yet been released.

He said the plane was able to lift off the ground and cleared a fence at the end of the runway before it hit multiple businesses surrounding the airport.

Beshear declared a state of emergency on Wednesday to help “move resources more quickly through emergency management and the Kentucky National Guard”.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said that the airport has since reopened its runway so that flights can resume.

At least 16 different families have reported loved ones unaccounted for, according to Beshear.

Two workers at the auto business that was struck were still unaccounted for as of Tuesday evening, and it is not known how many customers were on the premises when the crash happened.

In a statement, UPS said three crew members were on board, adding “we have not confirmed any injuries/casualties”.

Local officials said on Wednesday that they were unsure how many victims they were searching for, and that the fire destroyed the plane, creating a large debris zone that would make it challenging to find people.

Kentucky Representative Morgan McGarvey said 28 people from the NTSB were on the ground and would “analyse absolutely every bit of what happened”.

Officials did note, though, that the massive blaze was caused by the amount of fuel onboard the aircraft, which was beginning a journey of around 4,300 miles (6,920km) to Hawaii.

It was carrying 38,000 gallons (144,000 litres) of fuel when it crashed.

This made it look like it was “raining oil” in Louisville when the crash occurred, McGarvey said.

It has not been confirmed what cargo was on board, though officials have said the plane was not carrying anything that would create a heightened risk of contamination.

The explosion engulfed at least two nearby businesses, including a petroleum recycling company. A shelter-in-place order was initially issued for within five miles of the airport due to concerns of further explosions and air pollution, but was later reduced to just one mile.

All departing flights for Tuesday evening were cancelled, the airport said in a statement on X.

Louisville Fire Department Chief Brian O’Neal said the amount of fuel spilled at the crash site made it a “very dangerous situation”.

The shelter-in-place order was reduced to a one-mile radius as crews worked to contain the blaze on Tuesday night.

At a press conference, Beshear warned people not to go to the crash site.

“Anyone who has seen the images and the video knows how violent this crash is,” he said.

“There are still dangerous things that are flammable, that are potentially explosive.”

Louisville Metro Police Dept Chief Paul Humphrey said that the crash site will be “an ongoing active scene for the next several days”.

He added: “We don’t know how long it’s going to take to render that scene safe for the investigation to take place.”

The model of aircraft involved was a MD-11F triple-engine plane, which first entered service 34 years ago with Thai Airways as a passenger jet, but was transferred to UPS in 2006.

The aircraft was originally manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing in 1997.

In 2023, FedEx and UPS both announced plans to begin retiring their fleets of MD-11s over the next decade as part of plans to modernise their fleets.

In a statement, Boeing said it is “ready to support our customer” and that “our concern is for the safety and well-being of all those affected.”

It added that it will offer technical assistance to the NTSB.

Louisville is home to UPS Worldport, a global hub for the delivery firm’s air cargo operations and its largest package handling facility in the world.

In a statement, UPS said it was “terribly saddened” by the incident and would be halting package sorting operations at Worldport on Tuesday night.

It added: “UPS is committed to the safety of our employees, and customers and the communities we serve. This is particularly true in Louisville, home to our airline and thousands of UPSers.”

“You have to deliver on addressing that crisis.” New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani criticised President Donald Trump for not fixing the affordability crisis he campaigned on, adding that Republicans are scared the new mayor may actually deliver.

Many Ugandans are expressing their pride in the newly elected mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and retains dual nationality.

Some have described him as one of “their own”, saying he inspires them.

A journalist who mentored him during his teenage internship at one of Uganda’s leading newspapers told the BBC that there was a “lot of excitement” in Uganda about Mamdani’s rise especially because of his young age. Uganda has the second-lowest median age worldwide of just 16.2, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Zohran, 34, is the son of Prof Mahmood Mamdani, a prominent Ugandan academic, while his mother, Mira Nair, is an acclaimed filmmaker.

Journalist Angelo Izama told the BBC’s Newsday programme that the younger Mamdani was “initially shy” while they worked together, but was “absolutely determined to get things done”.

He says Zohran is “very fond of Kampala”, Uganda’s capital, which he often mentions.

Mahmood Mamdani was raised in Uganda and worked for more than a decade at Makerere University, the country’s main and oldest university. He met his wife in Kampala while she was researching Mississippi Masala, a film about the expulsion of Asians from Uganda under Idi Amin.

Prof Mamdani is known for his anti-colonialist scholarship, which examines the legacy of colonialism in Africa and its impact on governance, identity and justice.

Makerere University professor Okello Ogwang says he “feels great” about Zohran’s success, describing him as the “son of a colleague. This is somebody from home”.

“We have one of us there,” he told the BBC.

“It gives me hope that the children we are raising are the hope of this world. As a continent… we are missing out on the greatest resource we have – the youth.”

While many Ugandans had not heard of Zohran until his election, a student at the university said people were “very happy”, saying it proved that anyone could rise above their background.

“It gives morale, especially to us as youths,” said Abno Collins Kuloba. “Wherever you have grown up, be it poor or rich, you can become something big, like what [Mamdani] has done.”

Another student, Chemtai Zamzam, said she was happy, for herself and Ugandans. She said Mamdani was an inspiration to her as a young person, as “it shows we can become anything we want as long as we put faith and determination”.

The new mayor is also being celebrated elsewhere in the continent.

Abdul Mohamed, an Ethiopian who is a former senior UN and African Union official, describes Mahmood Mamdani as “a distinguished scholar of African politics”, a man who interrogated power and justice.

He says having known Zohran since infancy, he sees him as having inherited his father’s “commitment to pan-Africanism”, his parents’ “courage to think freely,” and their belief that one can “belong everywhere”.

He says Zohran’s rise is symbolic and practical especially to young Africans, asking them to draw from him lessons in politics.

“I think through him, [the] power and beauty of multi-ethnic, multi-religious identity found its voice. And Africa is by and large a multi-ethnic and a multi-religious society,” he says.

He adds that as Zohran has demonstrated, young people need to organise and build political action and “avoid despair and avoid pure anger”.

Uganda is holding elections next year, with 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni seeking another term after almost 40 years in power.

The Mamdani family also spent at around three years in Cape Town, South Africa, after Mahmood was appointed the Chair of African Studies at the University of Cape Town in the 1990s.

Some South Africans have also been taking pride in his historic election.

Hailing his victory as as a “remarkable achievement”, the imam of Cape Town’s Claremont Road Mosque, Rashied Omar, said that Zohran’s “formative years were shaped, in small part, in our congregation”.

He said that Zohran began his Islamic education at the mosque, and started his schooling at St George’s Grammar.

“It is inspiring to see how Zohran’s early South African experiences, though modest, made a lasting impression on his political consciousness and helped shape his creative, community-based approach to politics,” Dr Omar said.

“As South African social justice activists, we can now learn from Zohran’s example, how to practise progressive politics that resonates with new generations and builds bridges across race, class, and faith,” he added.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the fourth-biggest party in South Africa which champions left-wing economic policies, also hailed Zohran’s victory as historic.

“His election represents not only a transformative moment for the people of New York but also a powerful signal to the world that progressive justice-driven leadership is rising even in the heart of the global capitalist order,” the party said in a statement.

In Nigeria, a Christian pastor who is a supporter of President Bola Tinubu also welcomed Zohran’s victory.

Pastor Okezie J Atañi said on X that Nigeria “cannot be threatened” by US President Donald Trump, whose “threats could not subdue” the 34-year-old Zohran.

Last week, Trump threatened to take military action to tackle Islamist insurgents in Nigeria, accusing the government of failing to protect Christians.

Government officials responded by saying that jihadists were not targeting members of a particular religion and that they had killed people from all faiths, or none.

Additional reporting by Mohammed Allie in Cape Town and Mansur Abubakar in Abuja