As the news of the air crash spread in the surrounding areas, residents dropped whatever they were doing and rushed to the site to see the disaster for themselves.

Sitting atop his bicycle, Rajesh Singhal, who was on his third visit to the area said: ``I came in the morning at around 9.30, when I first heard about the crash. After that I went home and told my friends about it. Then I came back again after sometime to see what was happening. At that time there were very few people here. It is only now that this place has become so crowded.''

And crowded it was. Delhi police officials, who had cordoned-off the entire area, had in fact formed two rings of human chain to keep out the curious onlookers. Hansraj, who had walked down to spot, said: ``I saw a large number of people coming here so I stopped and asked them what had happened. When they told me that there had been an air crash, I also came down to see what had happened''.

However, not everyone came alone. Most of them, in fact, came with friends and family in tow. Oblivious to the fact that the crash had taken place at 8.22 a.m., Sarita, who had come with her family and neighbours said: ``The children had come down at around 7- 7.30 a.m. and seen the whole thing. When they came back and told us, we quickly finished our chores and rushed here along with them to take a look. Since we live quite nearby, it took us just fifteen minutes to drive down''.