Chinese military plane crashes in east China

BEIJING, June 4 (Reuters) A Chinese military transport plane with at least 40 aboard has crashed in the eastern province of Anhui, Xinhua news agency said today. There were no reports of survivors.

Officials had no information on casualties. But villagers who rushed to the scene said they had found no one alive after the plane crashed and broke up on Saturday in bamboo-covered hills in Guangde county, some 200 km (120 miles) west of Shanghai.

One villager said he had seen about five to seven bodies in the wreckage.

A woman whose husband joined rescue efforts said: ''Body parts were scattered around the hill and only a few bodies were left intact.'' Troops later sealed off the scene, villagers said.

Local officials and state media did not confirm the deaths.

Military officials could not be reached for comment.

A county official said military investigators were looking for the plane's black boxes but had no comment on casualties.

Xinhua's brief report said a ''work group'' from Beijing had arrived at the scene to organise rescue operations.

Disclosure of military accidents in China is rare.

Beijing dismissed a naval commander and demoted other officers after a 2003 submarine accident killed 70 men in one of China's worst naval disasters since the 1949 Communist takeover.

In a rare break with military secrecy, the official Xinhua news agency reported both the accident and the wave of punishments.

REUTERS SK BD1606