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An Azerbaijan Airlines flight carrying 62 passengers and five crew members crashed while making an emergency landing at an airport in Kazakhstan, with 29 survivors, including two children, taken to hospital.

Videos on local media showed the plane crashing into an empty field with a huge explosion. Images from the scene showed the tail of the fuselage intact, with passengers climbing out helped by emergency workers.

The passengers were from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian state news agency Ria reported, citing Kazakhstan’s transport ministry.

Nine of those taken to hospital are in serious condition, according to Kazakhstan’s Orda news outlet.

Local media said search and rescue operations were ongoing, citing Kazakhstan’s emergency services.

The plane, an Embraer 190, was traveling to Grozny in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, but was diverted to Aktau after flying into heavy fog, according to local news agencies.

Early media reports suggested that the flight had hit a flock of birds, affecting the control of the aircraft.

“After a bird collision, due to an emergency situation on the plane, its commander decided to go to an alternate airfield and Aktau was chosen,” Ria reported, citing the aviation agency. in Russia Rosaviatsia. Local media also shared unconfirmed reports of an oxygen canister exploding on the ship, causing several passengers to lose consciousness.

Baku has sent an official delegation to Kazakhstan to investigate the incident, Azerbaijan’s APA news agency said. The country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, left an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Russia to return to Baku. He expressed his condolences to the affected families.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin also extended his condolences to the Azerbaijani leader.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased on social media. “We pray to the Almighty for (the survivors) to recover.”

Photos on social media showed relatives gathering at Grozny airport to hear the news of their loved ones.

A man at the Grozny airport said he had just received a video where he could see his nephew, a passenger on the plane, being saved. “Of course I’m very happy,” he told a reporter in Ria.