A Bangladeshi airliner with 71 people on board crashed on Monday while coming in to land at the airport in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, killing at least 50 people, officials said.

The plane from US-Bangla, a Bangladeshi airline, went off the runway while landing and crashed on the east side of Tribhuvan International Airport’s runway, the Kathmandu Post reported.

“We have recovered 50 dead bodies so far,” said army spokesman Gokul Bhandari. Several people had been rescued from the burning wreckage of the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft but nine people were still unaccounted for, he said.

The plane can reportedly carry 78 passengers and firefighters were at the scene trying to extinguish a fire, local news site My Republica reported.

Photos and video posted on social media showed smoke rising from an airport runway.

The plane was identified in local media as S2-AGU, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, but this has not been officially confirmed.

source: BBC.com