Plane Crashes In Congo 30 Dead

All 22 on board the plane -- 16 passengers and six crew -- were killed, as well as up to eight people on the ground, according to Jean-Pierre Eale, an aide to the Democratic Republic of Congo's information minister.

"All of the members of the crew and passengers are dead," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. An airport official had said there were 17 people on board.

"There are casualties, many dead, but I don't have any specifics," Major Gabriel De Brosses told Reuters, adding the United Nations had sent a rescue team and firefighters to the crash site.

A Russian-made cargo plane with 17 people on board has crashed and exploded in a crowded neighbourhood of Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, airport officials and witnesses have said.

A witness reached by phone said the area was full of smoke and it was hard to tell if there had been deaths or injuries. The witness, Papy Kangufu, said the market was full of people when the plane crashed.