Libya air crash survivor regains consciousness

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A Dutch boy, the sole survivor of a Libyan plane crash that killed 103 people, regained consciousness after a surgery at a Tripoli hospital, state-run Jana news agency reported.

The Afriqiyah Airways plane crashed early on Wednesday on landing at Tripoli airport, with most of the passengers on board were Dutch.

According to the Jana report, Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zidan on Wednesday night visited the child, identified as 10-year-old Robben Van Achout -- a transliteration from the Arabic name stated in the report -- at al-Khadraa hospital after he recovered consciousness following the surgery to repair several fractures in both legs.

Dr. Hamida al-Sahli, head of the child care unit at the hospital, told Jana that the child had suffered bleeding before the surgery because of several fractures in both legs.

The child sustained four bone fractures and lost a lot of blood, the doctor said. Yet, he did not sustain fractures in the skull or the neck.

He is now in a stable condition, she added.

Dutch newspaper Babants Dagblad said the survivor may be the nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw from southern Dutch city of Tilburg.

The paper quoted the presumed grandmother of the child, Ann van de Sande, as saying that the child was with his father Patrick, 40, mother Trudy, 41, and brother Enzo, 11, on a safari trip to South Africa.

"We cannot understand anything at all," she said. "It's like watching a movie."

According to the latest information released by Afriqiyah Airways on Wednesday evening, the passengers list included 59 from the Netherlands, seven from South Africa, two from Britain, two from Austria, one from Germany, one from Zimbabwe, one from France, and two from Libya. There are 17 passengers still to be identified.

The fatalities list also included the 11-member crew, all Libyans.

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