Rescue workers soon arrived at the crash site - but there was no-one to rescue

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A Turkish Airlines DC10 has crashed near Paris killing all 345 people on board.

The plane was on a regular flight from Ankara to London via Paris. It came down just minutes after take-off at 1235 GMT, scything a mile-long trail through the forest of Ermenonville.

Among the victims were 200 passengers, many of them British, who had been transferred from British Airways flights cancelled because of a strike by engineers at London airport.

No-one was killed on the ground, although the forest is popular with walkers.

Only blackened stumps of trees remained where the pilot had probably attempted a crash landing. Bits of clothing and other wreckage from the plane were strewn across the whole area.

Hundreds of rescue workers, from the Red Cross, Protection Civile as well as fire and ambulance crews, were on the scene within half an hour.

But there was no-one to be rescued. All that remained to be done was to collect the bodies and take them to the church of St Pierre at Senlis.

From there, soldiers transferred the bodies onto army vehicles during the night to be driven to the medical centre in Paris, where they will be examined by forensic scientists.

Eyewitnesses in the nearby village of St Pathu said they heard an explosion and saw flames coming from the plane long before it plunged into the forest.

Some bodies were found close to the village, about six miles from the crash site, which also suggests the plane may have exploded in mid-air.

Crash investigators looking for clues to the world's worst air disaster to date will start by studying the jet's engines. They are also looking for the black box flight recorder.

The possibility ofsabotagehas not been discounted.

Among the victims were 17 members of Bury St Edmunds rugby club, returning from a trip to Paris.

Olof Palme shunned bodyguards and preferred to dress informally

The centre, which has been 15 years in the making, is the largest arts centre in western Europe and covers five-and-a-half acres of Cripplegate, which was destroyed by Nazi bombers in World War II.

The new multi-million pound building will provide a new home for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Both have performed inaugural concerts for the Queen this evening.

The centre also houses a concert hall for 2,000 people, two theatres, a cinema, a library, a conference centre and several galleries.

'Wonder of the modern world'

The Queen was welcomed by the administrator of the centre, Henry Wrong.

She officially opened As she unveiled a plaque commemorating the opening of the Barbican, the Queen said: "What has been created here must be one of the wonders of the modern world."

More than 3,500 people arrived for the opening night celebrations which culminated in a spectacular fireworks display over the centre's lake.

Plans for a new arts centre at the Barbican were originally given the go-ahead in 1971 when it was proposed that construction would cost ?7m and would take six years to complete.

sabotage: a deliberate act of destruction or disruption in which equipment is damaged（陰謀破壞）