Toll in Taiwan plane crash mounts to 9

Taipei, Feb 4: Nine people were killed after a Taiwanese TransAsia Airways plane, with 58 people on board, crashed into a river near Taipei Wednesday, according to media reports.

A total of 27 passengers have been rescued and taken to nearby hospitals in Taipei and New Taipei City. Other passengers were feared to be trapped inside the plane, Xinhua reported.

Rescuers were reported to be drilling holes into the aircraft's body, possibly preparing to raise it out of the water.

Contact with flight ATR-72, from Taipei to Kinmen, was lost around 11 a.m. It crashed into the Keelung river after it clipped an elevated motorway with its wing.

The plane was carrying 31 passengers from the Chinese mainland, reports said.

IANS