Taiwan TransAsia Airways plane plunges into river

Combined photos taken by an automobile data recorder shows an airplane crashes over a bridge in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, Feb. 4, 2015. A plane of the Taiwan TransAsia Airways came down into a Taipei river Wednesday, with more than 50 people on board, confirmed the civil aviation authorities of Taiwan. Contact with the ATR-72 Flight, scheduled from Taipei to Kinmen, lost at about 11 a.m. Then the plane was found in the river by the Nanhu Bridge. (Xinhua)

A Taiwan TransAsia Airways plane crashed into a Taipei river on Wednesday morning, killing nine, a Xinhua reporter said from the scene.

Of the nine, four are male and five female, according to the local rescue authority. However, local media are reporting a death toll of 10.

A total of 27 passengers have been rescued and taken to nearby hospitals in Taipei and New Taipei City, but there are still passengers trapped in the plane.

Rescue crew are currently drilling holes into the aircraft's body, possibly preparing to raise it out of water.

Flight ATR-72, which was headed for Kinmen from Taipei, had 58 people on board including 31 passengers from the Chinese mainland. It crash landed in the Keelung River after it clipped an elevated motorway with its wing.

The 31 Chinese mainland passengers were on organized trips, managed by two travel agencies from Xiamen City in the southeast mainland province of Fujian, the Taiwan tourism authority confirmed.

Contact with the plane was lost at about 11 a.m.

(Updated)