Plane crash in Siberia leaves 32 dead

The Russian emergencies ministry confirmed that the passenger plane, an ATR-72 liner, was carrying passengers and four crew members when it fell 45 kilometres, from the western Siberian city of Tyumen, on its way to Surgut.

The plane crashed soon after its takeoff.

"Eleven people were injured and 32 killed," the Tyumen emergencies ministry said in a statement, adding that Tyumen governor Vladimir Yakushev had arrived at the site of the crash.

Utair, the private Russian airline, said that the plane crashed shortly after takeoff "while conducting a forced landing 1.5 kilometres" outside Roschino airport.

It gave no immediate reason for the crash. The emergencies ministry said 232 rescue workers and investigators had been dispatched to the site.

Rescue teams found the plane's cabin ablaze along with other debris.

This is not the first accident to blight Russia's aviation industry, after a series of accidents in the past years. This has also forced president Vladimir Putin to place the reform of the industry as one of his top priorities.

Russia announced plans to recall the licences of 30 smaller airlines in response to a September 2011 plane crash that claimed the lives of 44 people -- most of them members of the championship-winning ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

A plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and other top officials came down in fog near the Russian city of Smolensk in April 2010 in an accident that killed 96 people.