Updated
A Bangladeshi plane carrying 71 passengers and crew has crashed while coming into land at Kathmandu's international airport, with police saying at least 38 people have been killed and 23 injured.
An Army spokesman said the death toll could be at least 50.
The police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said 10 people remained unaccounted for in the crash.
The plane, a US-Bangla Airlines twin-propeller Bombardier Dash 8 flying from Bangladesh, swerved repeatedly before it crashed near the runway.
Clouds of thick, dark smoke could be seen rising above the hilltop Tribhuvan International Airport, which was immediately shut down.
An airport official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of airport policy, said the plane appeared to have caught fire just before it landed and skidded to a stop in a field beside the runway.
Amanda Summers, an American who works in Nepal, watched the crash happen from the terrace of her home office, not far from the airport.
"It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains," she said.
"All of a sudden there was a blast and then another blast."
Selim, the US-Bangla manager, said the plane had circled the airport twice as it waited for clearance to land.
Nitin Keyal was about to board a domestic flight when he saw the plane coming in.
"It was flying very low," said Mr Keyal, a medical student.
"Everyone just froze looking at it. You could tell it wasn't a normal landing."
He said it landed just off the runway, broke apart and burst into flames.
"For a few minutes no one could believe what was happening. It was just terrible," he said.
Most of the injured were brought to Kathmandu Medical College, the closest hospital to the airport, where relatives wept as they awaited news.
US-Bangla spokesman Kamrul Islam said the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives.
He said there were also four crewmembers on board.
Kathmandu's airport has been the site of several deadly crashes.
In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after take off, killing all 19 on board.
Devendra Subedi, senior news editor at Nepal Television, said it is a very busy airport given that it's almost in the city itself.
"Weather-wise, Kathmandu hasn't been great for the last two days … afternoon time, clouds had been building up and the pre-monsoon activity has been disturbing the weather," he said, but added that the weather wasn't so bad as to prevent a successful landing.
"US-Bangla Airlines hasn't been a regular, long-serving airline in Nepali Airport and Nepal has been one of the difficult airports — given the terrain and geography — for landing."
Mr Subedi told ABC that the number of survivors was due to the fast actions of airport firefighters, who put out the flames and freed the injured from the wreckage.
"All the flights to and from have been cancelled at the moment and relief operations are ongoing," he said.
US-Bangla is a private Bangladeshi carrier which operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400 planes.
The airline, part of US-Bangla Group, is based in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and flies to several domestic and international destinations.
The parent company is involved in a number of industries, including real estate, education and agriculture.
ABC/AP/Reuters
First posted