Four dead in plane collision in Australia

SYDNEY - Four people were killed when two planes crashed into a field in the Australian State of Victoria on Wednesday.

Police said it was believed that the aircraft collided in mid-air before crashing, killing the two occupants of each aircraft.

Emergency services were called to two scenes in rural Victoria just before midday local time.

The area where the incident occurred is less than 10 km from a flight training facility located in the town of Mangalore.

A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) told Xinhua that one of the aircraft was a Piper-Seminole, operated by flying school Moorabbin Aviation Services, which has a campus in Mangalore.

The other aircraft was a Beech Travel Air registered to a private owner at Tyabb on the Mornington Peninsula, roughly 150 km south of the crash site.

According to the spokesperson the aircraft were travelling at around 4,000 feet at the time of the collision.

Images of the crash area show extensive damage to both aircraft, with large amounts of wreckage and debris strewn across a field and in sparse bushland.

Police said that the incident was being investigated.