Plane carrying 132 people crashes in southern China

A passenger plane carrying 132 people has crashed in southern China.

The Boeing-737 operated by China Eastern was travelling from Kunming to Guangzhou when it came down in Guangxi province with 123 passengers and nine crew aboard.

Emergency services are on site at the scene of the crash on a mountainside where smoke can be seen rising from the area but casualties are currently unknown.

The flight that crashed appears to be Flight No. MU5735, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.

Data shows the Boeing 737-89P rapidly lost speed before entering a sharp descent.

Satellite data from NASA showed a massive fire in the area of where the plane went down at the time of the crash.The plane stopped transmitting data just southwest of the city of Wuzhou.

Shanghai-based China Eastern is one of the country's three biggest airlines, operating routes serving 248 domestic and international destinations.

China Eastern took receipt of the from Boeing in June 2015 and had been flying for more than six years.

 Ou Ling, political commissar, Wuzhou Fire Rescue Detachment, said: "So far, a rescue team of 120 vehicles and 622 members have arrived at the accident site.

The site is ringed on three sides by mountains without access to power supply, so the lighting conditions are very poor.

"The search and rescue work are now in full swing."