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At Least Three Kazakh Citizens Killed In Germanwings Plane Crash


ASTANA -- At least three Kazakh citizens and a prominent Kazakh-born opera singer are among the 150 people killed in the crash of a German passenger jet in the French Alps.

The Germanwings Airbus A320 was en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf when it crashed about 100 kilometers north of Nice, leaving no survivors.

Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said on March 25 that three Kazakh nationals -- Erbol Imankulov, 50; Aizhan Esenghalieva, 49; and Adil Imankulov, 25 -- were among the dead.

The ministry said another victim, Yelena Bles, might have been a Kazakh citizen.

Barcelona's Liceu opera house said that Oleg Bryjak, a well-known bass-baritone opera singer who was born in Kazakhstan to a Ukrainian family, was also killed.

Bryjak, who lived in Germany for years, was returning along with German singer Maria Radner after they performed in the Wagner opera Siegfried at the theatre.

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