Plane crash in southwestern Colombia kills seven

BOGATA: At least seven people were killed when a small plane crashed in the southwestern Colombian town of Popayan on Sunday, authorities said.

The crash occurred shortly after the aircraft, owned by airline company Transpacifico, took off from the Payan airport, Colombia's civil aeronautics agency said in a statement cited by Xinhua news agency.

The twin-engine Piper PA-31-350 was headed towards the town of Lopez de Micay when it suffered mechanical failures and crashed at around 2 pm (local time), preliminary reports suggest.