Rescue workers are frantically trying to reach the survivors of a TransAsia Airways plane that crashed into a river in Taiwan.
At least 31 people were killed in the incident and rescue efforts are still ongoing as rescuers cut open the fuselage of the plane to reach those trapped inside.
The ATR 72 prop-jet aircraft was flying on its side, with one wing scraping past Taiwan's National Freeway No. 1 just seconds before it plunged into the river, local television images showed. It was the airline's second French-Italian-built ATR 72 to crash in the past year.
Taiwan's civil aviation authority said at least 31 people were killed and 12 people are still missing.
Plane crashes in to river in Taipei
Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10:53 a.m. and lost contact with controllers two minutes later. Thirty-one passengers were from China, Taiwan's tourism bureau said. Kinmen's airport is a common link between Taipei and China's Fujian province.
Rescuers were pulling luggage from an open plane door to clear the fuselage, and Wu said they planned to build a pontoon bridge to facilitate those efforts.
The plane's wing also hit a taxi, the driver of which was injured, on the freeway just before it crashed into the river, Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS reported.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said it had sent 165 people and eight boats to the riverside rescue scene, joining fire department rescue crews.