A plane carrying 72 people has crashed in Nepal, killing at least 68, authorities said.
Video from local media showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds gathered around the wreckage.
Images on social media showed the plane flying low before it began to spin.
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0:18 The plane spins moments before the crash
The rescuers have recovered 68 bodies of the 72 people who were on the plane.
“We expect to recover more bodies,” said army spokesman Krishna Bhandari. “The plane has been torn to pieces.”
The plane was carrying 68 passengers, including three infants, and four crew members, an airline spokesman said.
Of the passengers, five were Indian, four Russian and two South Korean, while there was one passenger each from Ireland, Australia, France and Argentina.
“Half the plane is on the hill, the other half is in the gorge”
Rescue workers were finding it difficult to reach the accident site as it is in a gorge between two hills, a police official said.
“Half of the plane is on the hillside,” said Arun Tamu, a local resident. “The other half has fallen into the gorge of the river Seti.”
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0:34 The plane broke into pieces on impact, an official said
Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he “saw the plane shaking, moving right and left, and suddenly the nose dived and went into the gorge.”
He said residents took two passengers to a hospital.
The resort town of Pokhara, which is 125 miles (200 km) west of the capital Kathmandu, is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking route in the Himalayas. Its airport started operating only two weeks ago.
Emergency cabinet meeting
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the prime minister, called an emergency cabinet meeting and urged security personnel and the local population to help with rescue efforts.
The twin-engine ATR 72 operated by Yeti Airlines was en route from Kathmandu, an airport official said.
Yeti Airlines announced tomorrow that all scheduled flights will be canceled “in mourning for the passengers who lost their lives”.
The plane was 15 years old and equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
It was Nepal’s deadliest air crash since 1992, the Air Safety Network database showed.
Image: Images: AP
History of air disasters
Plane crashes are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, as the weather can change suddenly and lead to dangerous conditions.
The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013 due to security concerns.
Last year 22 people died when a plane crashed into a mountainside.
In 2018, a US-Bangladesh passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 49 of the 71 people on board.
In 1992, all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed into a hill while trying to land in Kathmandu.