Cathy Jenkins: An Ethiopian fighter plane flew once over the airport as anti-aircraft fire rang out. The jet then circled and returned to drop its cargo of bombs.
One bomb hit the military airport which is next to the civilian complex. A huge plume of dense smoke rose from the compound. There was a noise of secondary explosions.
Civilians ran down the street away from the scene of the attack whilst ambulances and fire engines rushed towards it.
Our correspondent said there has been no information yet as to whether there were casualties. Eritrean troops quickly blocked the road to the military site and turned on-lookers away.
The president, speaking after a second day of bombing raids by the Ethiopian Air Force on the Eritrean capital, Asmara, also appeared to reject mediation by the United Nations and the United States.
He said the fighting on the ground at the border was of much greater magnitude than the air attacks. However, he did not rule out further action by Eritrea.
President Afewerki said: "What matters here is do we have to be drifted by situation ... or do we have to seriously commit ourselves to restraint?
President Isayas Afewerki: "I have not given any instructions for the air force to fly.""I don't think this escalation has changed much the situation ... we would like to wait and see developments and when there is a need for taking action, definitely we'll take action as a deterrent to escalation, as a deterrent to using force and impose any kind of condition."
At least one Ethiopian plane resumed bombing raids after daybreak. The plane was shot down - the second to be lost by Ethiopia - and the pilot captured.
The BBC correspondent in Asmara, Cathy Jenkins, said the Ethiopian attack came just as the Eritrean president was due to address journalists to explain the Eritrean position.
MEKELE, Ethiopia, June 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopia on Saturday shot down an Eritrean warplane in hills above the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele, one day after Eritrean aircraft bombed the town, killing nearly 50 people.
Reuters correspondents saw the wreckage of the plane, shot down just before 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), on a hilltop to the north of the town.
The Eritrean pilot, who had ejected from his cockpit, was captured by militia in the valley below and taken by helicopter to Mekele, the capital of Tigray province.
Local militiamen clapped and cheered when they reached the wreckage of the plane, which was scattered over a large area of scorched scrub.
They were joined by dozens of herdsmen and children, who climbed the steep hill to scavenge for pieces of mangled metal which they carried down to the valley as trophies.
The plane was brought down before it had hit any targets and there were no casualties. It is thought to be the first aircraft Eritrea has lost since a month-long border dispute between the two Horn of Africa neighbours escalated into an air war on Friday.
Eritrea said on Saturday it had shot down a third Ethiopian warplane in two days.
Officials said the captured Eritrean pilot was being held in Mekele town centre, and staff at the town's hospital said they had been told he might be admitted there in the afternoon.
In the hospital morgue, the bodies of 47 victims of Friday's dusk bomb attack on a residential area of Mekele were being prepared for funerals later on Saturday. Eritrean aircraft had earlier bombed Mekele's airport.
Hospital workers with handkerchieves tied over the lower half of their faces gagged as they bound the bodies and wrapped them in white shrouds.
At least 10 children were among the dead, and gruesome photographs of unidentified corpses were posted on the hospital gate.
``I have no words to express my feelings,'' said Dr. Emmanuel Mulugeta, who was up all night tending more than 100 wounded patients. ``It was an inhuman act and I did not expect this from my neighbouring country and those that used to be our brothers.''
Ethiopian and Eritrean guerrillas fought side by side in the long struggle which eventually ousted military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
Eritrea was rewarded for its efforts with independence after a referendum in 1993, and the two countries enjoyed friendly relations until a long-running border dispute turned violent on May 6.
Both sides have mobilised thousands of veterans of the 30-year liberation struggle.
Hundreds of local people were seen leaving Mekele on Saturday morning to stay with their families in the countryside.
Shops and cafes in the town centre were closed and residents who remained stayed inside their small stone houses. ``They (the Eritreans) don't care who they hit,'' said one man. ``We are not safe here.''
ROME, June 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has agreed to stop attacks on the airport in Eritrea's capital Asmara for 13 hours so foreigners can safely flee the conflict between the Horn of Africa nations, an Italian foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday.
The spokesman said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed to the ceasefire on the airport between 5.00 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Saturday and 6.00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday at a meeting with Italian, U.S., German and British ambassadors in Addis Ababa.
ROME, June 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopia and Eritrea pressed on with their ground and air war on Saturday, but agreed a brief truce to allow hundreds of foreigners to flee the Horn of Africa battle zone.
Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki said he held out little hope of peace.
``We are committed to a peaceful solution ...(but) at the moment I don't see light at the end of the tunnel,'' he told a news conference in the Eritrean capital.
Afewerki was speaking shortly after Eritrean gunners shot down a third Ethiopian warplane on a bombing sortie over Asmara and captured its pilot.
Foreigners who gathered with their belongings at Asmara's airport on Saturday were turned away by officials who said there would be no more evacuation flights.
British officials said, however, that they hoped a flight could be arranged for later in the day.
On the military front, Ethiopian artillery downed the Eritrean plane in hills above the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele, one day after Eritrean aircraft bombed the town, killing nearly 50 people.
Reuters correspondents saw the wreckage of the plane, shot down just before 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), on a hilltop to the north of the town.
The pilot, who had ejected safely, was captured by militia in the valley below and taken by helicopter to Mekele, the capital of Tigray province.
In Rome, an Italian foreign ministry spokesman said Ethiopia had agreed to stop attacks on the airport in Eritrea's capital Asmara for 13 hours so foreigners could get out safely.
The spokesman said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed to the ceasefire on the airport between 5.00 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Saturday and 6.00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday at a meeting with Italian, U.S., German and British ambassadors in Addis Ababa.
The spokesman said that during the 13-hour gap ``Ethiopia will ensure safety conditions needed to allow the takeoff and landing from Asmara of planes involved in the departure of Italian citizens and other foreign nationals.
``Italian officials informed Eritrean authorities of this decision, saying they expect this 'window' to be respected by both parties,'' the spokesman added.
Nearly 200 foreigners were evacuated from the Eritrean capital late on Friday by a U.S.-chartered A300 Airbus, but dozens more were left stranded when Eritrea later refused Britain permission to send a second charter.
Turkey said on Saturday it would evacuate nearly 160 of its citizens from Ethiopia, possibly this weekend.
A number of Turks were staying at a construction site of the company Turk Enka Holding in the Ethiopian town of Mekele, which was bombed twice by Eritrean jets on Friday.
It said the evacuation would probably take place on Sunday and added that all the Turks there were well. Turk Enka Holding is active in the construction sector in Turkey and abroad.
Turkey urged the two countries to stop fighting immediately and find a peaceful solution to the dispute, the statement said.
Ethiopian officials said the captured Eritrean pilot was being held in Mekele town centre, and staff at the town's hospital said they had been told he might be admitted there in the afternoon.
In the hospital morgue, the bodies of 47 victims of Friday's dusk air attack on a residential area of Mekele were being prepared for funerals later on Saturday.
Hospital workers with handkerchiefs tied over the lower half of their faces gagged as they bound the bodies and wrapped them in white shrouds.
At least 10 children were among the dead, and gruesome photographs of unidentified corpses were posted on the hospital gate.
``I have no words to express my feelings,'' said Dr. Emmanuel Mulugeta, who was up all night tending more than 100 wounded patients. ``It was an inhuman act and I did not expect this from my neighbouring country and those that used to be our brothers.''