Five people have been killed after a small plane crashed into a shopping centre near an airport north of Melbourne, Australia.
Video showed smoke billowing from the mall near Essendon Airport, with firefighters hosing down the burning wreckage of the aircraft and nearby buildings.
Assistant police commissioner Stephen Leane said the Beechcraft plane exploded on impact.
He said: "There were five people on the aeroplane and it looks like nobody's survived the crash."
A taxi driver told ABC radio there was a "massive fireball" after the impact.
He said: "I could feel the heat through the window of the taxi, and then a wheel - it looked like a plane wheel - bounced on the road and hit the front of the taxi as we were driving along."
Police said the aircraft crashed just before 9am local time, an hour before the Direct Factory Outlet shopping mall was due to open.
Superintendent Mick Frewen said investigations were centred around a "catastrophic engine failure".
The pilot made a distress call before crashing.
State premier Daniel Andrews said: "A number of people have died as a result of what is the worst civil aviation accident that our state has seen for 30 years."
Essendon Airport is a small field used mainly by light aircraft.
The charter flight came down on its way to King Island in Bass Strait, which is between the mainland and Tasmania.
Flights from Melbourne's main airport have not been affected by the crash.
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