At least eight people have died when a small plane crashed into several buildings in a residential area of Medellin in Colombia.
All the victims were on board the plane with no injuries on the ground so far confirmed.
The aircraft crashed after taking off from the Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellin and was heading to the municipality of Pizarro, Colombian aviation officials said in a statement.
It crashed into the residential area of Belen Rosales with six passengers and two crew members, on the twin-engine Piper PA-31, dying.
Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero confirmed the deaths and said that there was a report of an engine failure on the plane before it crashed and broke into three pieces.
Authorities confirmed the victims as pilot Julián Aladino, co-pilot Sergio Guevara Delgado and passengers Jorge Cantillo Martínez, Dubán Ovalle Quintero, Anthony Mosquera Blanquiceth, Pedro Pablo Serna, Melissa Pérez Cuadros and Nicolás Jiménez.
Quintero tweeted: "The accident was in the Belen Rosales area, all the relevant departments rushed to provide aid to the victims. It was a Piper two engine that was going from Medellin to the area of Choco in the municipality of Pizarro. Taking off it reported a motor failure and it did not manage to get back to Olaya Herrera airport."
The plane crashed into the front of several homes with seven buildings damaged.
"I saw when it took off from the runway, after 40 seconds I heard a loud noise and the motor went. He tried to turn, when the left motor went he tried to turn but he couldn’t because he was very low down,” said Nicolas Gaviria, a witness, reported El Tiempo.
Another resident Sebastian Gomez told of hearing the crash and then people shouting.
He said: " The plane dropped very fast and after five second you could hear the crash, people started shouting and neighbours asked for help."
There were 15 units of the Medellin fire service went to the crash.
The Colombian civil aviation authority stated a team of investigators would now examine what happened.
It stated: “According to the facts, the plane crashed after taking off in the Belen neighbourhood of Medellin. Emergency teams from Olaya Herrera airport went to where it happened and verified the state of the victims. The civil aviation authority will give details about what happened when they are available.”
