African plane crash kills 20

BANGUI, Central African Republic -- A cargo plane has crashed in a residential area in the capital of the Central African Republic, killing 20 people on board.

Residents at the crash site in Bangui appeared to have escaped despite the plummeting wreckage of the plane destroying a dozen mud-brick houses.

Soldiers helping emergency workers at the scene said they thought the houses had been empty when the plane hit, narrowly missing a number of other nearby homes and a bustling market about one mile away in the riverside city.

A dozen bodies were laid outside the fuselage by Red Cross workers, who were pulling more bodies from the smoking mass of tangled metal.

The Associated Press, quoting local officials, reported 20 people on board the plane died and two survived.

Airline sources in Bangui said they believed the aircraft had been carrying food from Chad's capital N'Djamena to Brazzaville in the Congo Republic.

The plane appeared to have bounced when it first hit the ground, cutting deep craters in the earth before breaking up.

A wing lay across a collapsed house, debris hung from nearby trees and hot parts of engine and fuselage littered the area.

"I was afraid when I saw the plane coming down, and all of a sudden I heard a loud noise, and some parts of the aircraft flew into the air and fell in the mud," a woman identifying herself as Zara who watched the crash from her farm told The Associated Press.

The plane when it experienced technical difficulties and was trying to land at Bangui's international airport, according to officials at the regional air authority Asecna.

It crashed about two miles short of the runway, the officials told AP.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, which occurred in clear weather in the capital's Guitangola neighbourhood.

Residents rushed to the scene, trying to steal the cargo before rescue workers arrived. They later stood on the sidelines as soldiers, firefighters and presidential guards sifted through the debris.

The crash is the latest in a string of air disasters on the continent -- the least safe to fly in last year according to figures from the Netherlands-based Aviation Safety Network.

A Nigerian airliner smashed into the northern city of Kano in May killing at least 148 people, including Nigerian Sports Minister Ishaya Mark Aku. Of 75 people on board, four survived. The rest of the dead were killed on the ground.

Central African Republic is one of the world's poorest countries, despite rich diamond mines. The former French colony's 3.5 million people struggle by on an average $290 a year.