9:48pm UK, Sunday October 23, 2005

There are no traces of any survivors after a plane crash in Nigeria, Red Cross officials said.

Some 117 people were on board the Boeing 737 aircraft, which was on its way to the Nigerian capital Abuja from Lagos.

180 nigeria plane crash

Plane fell off radar

Nigerian television station AIT said the site of the air crash was at Lissa village in Ogun state.

A Red Cross spokesman said there was nothing in the wreckage but "charred bodies".

The plane disappeared from radar screens as it was turning over the Atlantic.

The pilot made a distress call from the aircraft minutes before it vanished.

An airport spokesman said it was possible the plane had either crashed or been hijacked.

A Bellview Airlines official said Flight 210 took off Saturday night en route to Abuja and lost contact with the control tower.

There was a heavy electrical storm around Lagos at that time.

The privately owned Nigerian airline is popular with expatriates living in the West African nation. Western diplomats fear several of their citizens could have been on board.

The flight would not normally travel over the ocean, but the plane could have diverted briefly over the sea if it was avoiding the storm, aviation officials said.