Aizwal, Jan 23 (EFE).- A Myanmar military plane crash-landed at an airport in northeast India on Tuesday, injuring at least eight crew members, according to Indian police.

The cargo aircraft, with 14 crew members including the pilots on board, veered off the runway at Lengpui Airport in the bordering state of Mizoram and crashed into nearby woods, Deputy Superintendent of Police Lalduata Hmar told EFE.

Hmar said eight crew members sustained injuries and were transported to the nearby Lengpui village health center for medical attention.

The police officer said the plane had arrived to pick up 92 Myanmar army personnel who had recently entered India after fleeing their homeland.

Many soldiers have crossed the porous border between India and Myanmar to reach Mizoram, where they have handed over weapons to the Indian Army.

The four northeast Indian states – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram – share a more than 1,600-km-long border with strife-torn Myanmar, which is currently caught in a bloody civil war, triggered by the 2021 military coup.

The civil unrest in Myanmar has heightened tensions in border areas adjacent to India, leading to thousands of Myanmar people seeking refuge in India to escape airstrikes launched by the military in response to the rebel offensive.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since the rebel offensive in Myanmar began on Oct. 27, approximately 90,000 people have been displaced from their homes. EFE

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