Children are among 29 people rescued alive from the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 people.
The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft was carrying 67 people when it hit the ground near the city of Aktau, sending flames into the sky.
The plane had been en route from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, but was rerouted due to fog.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.
“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” he said.
Emergency services work at the scene of the crash. Pic: Reuters
Previously Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
Initially, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office said 32 people on board had survived.
That number has since been revised to 29 by Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister Kanat Bozumbayev, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
Azerbaijan Airlines is suspending all flights to Grozny while the investigation is under way, it has been reported.
A video believed to capture the moment of impact shows the aircraft, which was carrying 62 passengers and five crew, plunging towards ground at speed, and a resulting ball of flame.
Pictures from the crash site show the wrecked tail section of the Embraer 190 plane, with emergency services working around it.
More than 50 rescuers are at the scene, where a fire has been extinguished, Kazakhstani authorities said.
Flames seen as the plane crashes. Pic: Reuters TV
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Survivors are being treated at a nearby hospital. Four bodies have been recovered.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the aircraft had been forced to make an emergency landing at Aktau airport.
According to the carrier, 37 passengers were Azerbaijani citizens. There were also 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens, it said.
Questions remain about why the Azerbaijan Airlines flight had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to his Azerbaijani counterpart, the Kremlin said.
Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Chechnya, also expressed his condolences and said those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.