An Irish citizen has been confirmed among the 103 people killed when an aircraft crashed in Libya this morning.

A 10 year old Dutch boy was the sole survivor from Afriqiyah Airlines flight 8U771, which came down near Tripoli while en-route from Johannesburg to London Gatwick.

The Airbus A330-200 crashed in the early hours of this morning just short of the runway as it prepared to land in Tripoli.

All but one of the 104 passengers and crew were killed; miraculously a 10 year old Dutch boy survived and is being operated on for broken bones.

61 people on board were Dutch, and 22 were Libyans.

It has emerged this evening that an Irish passport holder, who lived between the UK and South Africa, was also among the victims.

Crash investigators have recovered the plane’s black box, but terrorism has been ruled out as to why the Airbus – which had only been in service since September – came down with such tragic consequences.