TAIPEI: At least nine people have been killed after a TransAsia Airways plane carrying 58 people crashed in a river in Taiwan's capital on Wednesday, the Taiwan government confirmed.
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The twin-engine propeller plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Taipei Airport, en route to Kinmen Island, with 53 passengers and five crew, the state-run Central News Agency reported.
About 16 people were rescued, civil aeronautics authorities told a media briefing. Thirty-one mainland Chinese tourists were among those on board, Taiwan's tourism bureau said.
Images from the crash site show rescue workers pulling passengers from the partially submerged hull of the plane and loading them into inflatable rafts.
Footage taken by a motorist appears to show the stricken plane clipping a bridge before crashing into the Keelung River in Taipei.
