China plane crash: Moment Boeing 737 nosedives before smashing into mountains [WATCH]

Beijing, Mar 21: A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 133 passengers crashed in southern China's Guangxi Province on Monday, state media reported. The plane stopped transmitting data just southwest of the Chinese city of Wuzhou.

The Boeing 737 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which flew from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, causing a mountain fire, the department was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The 132 people included 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on its website. The number of casualties is not clear yet, the report said.

Terrifying CCTV footage emerged on social media reportedly showing the final moments the plane nosedived towards the ground in the moments before the smash.

Rescuers have been assembled and are approaching the site. According to news portal The Paper, a staff member at Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport said that flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou has not arrived at its destined time, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The domestic flight was scheduled to take off from Kunming at 1.10 pm (local time) and arrive at Guangzhou at 2.52 pm (local time) and is now marked "out of reach" on Baiyun airport's app.

Following the accident, videos and pictures purporting to come from the scene started circulating on social media showing smoke billowing from a hillside and wreckage on the ground.

The China Eastern's flight No. 5735 had been traveling at around 30,000 feet when suddenly, just after 0620 GMT, the plane entered a deep dive at its cruising altitude speed of 455 knots (523 mph, 842 kph), according to data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. The data suggests the plane crashed within a minute and a half of whatever went wrong.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a statement that all efforts will be made to organise search and rescue and strengthen investigations into safety standards in civil aviation.