Pakistani plane with over 40 people aboard crashes

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane arrives at the Benazir International airport in Islamabad, Pakistan December 2, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane with about 47 people on board crashed in the mountainous north of the country on Wednesday, police and the civil aviation authority said.

PIA said the plane was bound for the capital, Islamabad, from the northern town of Chitral. The plane took off at 3:38 pm local time (1038 GMT) and lost contact with control tower at 4:20 pm (1120 GMT).

The aircraft was carrying "around 40 people", the airline said in a statement, but the civil aviation authority said 47 people were on board. It is not clear if there were any casualties.

Laiq Shah, a senior police official in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the plane had crashed in the province's Havelian area.

"Rescue teams are reaching the scene of the crash, and then we will know more," Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George told medias.