An Ethiopian air strike hit the capital of the northern region of Tigray on Thursday. Tigrayan forces said three civilians were killed in their homes, while the government said the strike hit a factory where military equipment was stored.

A doctor told Reuters he saw six people pulled out of the rubble from the bombing, and that he could not tell if they were alive or dead. He said the strike hit the residential Kebele 5 area.

Tigrayan television screened pictures of Red Cross workers at the site of collapsed brick structures with corrugated iron roofs. Blankets and kettles can be seen among bloodstained wreckage. At one point, gloved volunteers hastily cover a body part with a sheet.

The government said in a statement that the air strike hit and destroyed the other part of Mesfin Industrial Engineering PLC, a factory complex bombed last week, which it said the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) was using to maintain military equipment.