Islamabad: A passenger plane, carrying 127 passengers and crew members, crashed near the capital Islamabad Friday evening, aviation authorities and defense ministry said.

Officials said that the plane of a private company came down at Lohi Bher area, few kilometers away from Islamabad.

The private Boeing-737 crashed on houses, causing fire on houses. The plane with 118 passengers and 9 crew members, belonged to Bhoja airlines, officials said.

The plane B4-213 was coming from the port city of Karachi to Islamabad. It crashed while landing at the Islamabad’s Benazir International Airport.

Bhoja Airlines also confirmed the incident and its officials said that the plane was scheduled to land at Islamabad airport at 6;45 p.m.

local time. The plane had left Karachi airport at 5 p.m.

Civil Aviation Authorities said that the crashed apparently due to bad weather. The crash happened when Islamabad had been receiving heavy rain. The plane crashed almost 15-20 km away from the Islamabad airport, they said.

Captain Noor Afridi was the pilot of the crashed plane with bearing registration number B4-213. Witnesses said that flame could be seen rising from the crash site and fire has reportedly engulfed several

buildings.

Rescue teams and ambulances rushed to the site and emergency was declared in hopitals of Islamabad and the nearby Rawalpindi city.

Burning wreckage of the fuselage, wings and engines was scattered in the populated area and twisted metal parts hung from trees, an eyewitness Imtiaz said.

“I saw bodies lying in the area,” he told reporters.

Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar ordered inquiry into the crash.

Teh number of casulties of the crash is not offcially announced yet.