Plane carrying nine passengers crashes near airport as rescuers rush to scene

A skydiving plane carrying nine people has crashed near an airport in Sweden, leaving multiple dead.

The aircraft crashed at Orebro Airport at around 7.20pm this evening, reports say.

Eight parachutists and a pilot were said to be on board the small propeller plane, according to Swedish newspapers.

It came crashing down around 100 metres away from airstrip, with footage showing a fire at the scene.

Police spokesman Lars Hedelin said several people had died in the crash and one person had been taken to hospital with serious injuries, the Swedish newspaper Goteborgs-Posten reports.

He added that the fatal incident was an accident.

Carl-Johan Linde, press manager for the Swedish Maritime Administration, said the plane came crashing down shortly after take-off.

The fire at the crash site has now been extinguished and ten ambulances are at the scene.

The Sea and Air Rescue Centre confirmed that the aircraft was a skydiving plane.

The tragedy comes just days after an aircraft crashed into the sea in Russia with 28 people on board, including a child.

The twin-engine An-2 aircraft vanished from radar in the remote Kamchatka peninsula in the vast country's far east on Tuesday, with rescue teams deployed to the area.

Several ships were on the way to the crash site once it was located, according to reports.

The flight had set off from regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and was heading for the village of Palana in the north before losing contact, the emergencies ministry confirmed.

Six crew members were among those on board, the ministry added.

The head of the Palana village administration, Olga Mokhireva, 42, Is reported to have been among the passengers.

A report said that the 39-year-old turboprop Antonov got into trouble as it prepared to land, and the Russian Pacific Fleet was called in to help the search, along with a plane and two helicopters.

A local meteorology centre said weather in the area was cloudy, according to reports.

A spokesman for the ministry, speaking prior to the discovery of the crash, said: "An An-2 plane has disappeared from radar.

"We are trying to figure out what happened."

Emergency sources said the plane likely got into trouble some 15 to 20 km from the airport.