The British, the only survivor of the Air India aircraft crashed in India on Thursday, said he managed to escape the debris through an opening in the fuselage.

“I managed to solve my belts, I used my leg to push through this opening and I crawled out,” Vishwashkumar Ramesh said to Indian state -owned DD News, as the BBC reports.

The 40 -year -old, Mr Ramesh, was at 11a on Air India’s AI171 flight to London when it crashed shortly after taking off in the city of Ahmadabad, western India, on Thursday.

Air India said all other passengers and the crew were killed – including 169 Indian nationals and 52 British nationals. More than 200 bodies have been recovered so far. However, it is not clear how many of them are passengers and how many from the area where the aircraft fell.

Speaking from the hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said the lights inside the aircraft “started flickering” shortly after the take -off.

Within five to ten seconds, it appeared that the plane was “stuck in the air,” he said.

“The lights started flickering green and white … Suddenly a building hit and exploded.”

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a building used as a doctors’ hostel. However, Mr Ramesh from Leicester said that the section where he was sitting landed near the ground and did not come into contact with the building.

“When the door broke and saw that there was a little space, I tried to get out of there and I did.

“No one could get out of the opposite side, which was the wall, because it fell there.”

A video that was notified on social media showed Mr Ramesh walking towards an ambulance, while smoke was rising in the background.

He told the state media that he could not believe that he came out alive from the debris.

“I saw people die in front of my eyes – the stewards and two people I had seen near me,” he said.

“For a moment, I felt I was going to die too, but when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realized that I was alive,” the 40 -year -old added, noting:

“I still can’t believe how I survived. I got out of the debris. “

Mr. Ramesh’s doctor, Dr. Dhaval Gameti said he was “disoriented, with multiple traumas all over his body”, but that he seems to be “out of danger”.

On Friday morning, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Monti visited the crash before heading to hospital to meet injured, including Mr Ramesh, and the families of the victims.

Mr. Ramesh’s brother, Ajay, also boarded the plane.

Their other brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, told BBC News on Thursday outside their home in Leicester: “When he called us [ο Vishwashkumar]he was just more worried about Ajay … that’s all he cares about right now. “

Mr Ramesh is a businessman born in India but has been living in the United Kingdom since 2003, married and has a four -year -old son.