23 hurt in Russian plane crash in Siberia

The Russian defence ministry said one of its planes has crashed in northeast Siberia, but that nobody had been killed in the accident, Russian news agencies report.

The Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft is believed to have been carrying 32 passengers - a rotating team of officers - and seven crew members on board, when it crash-landed near the town of Tiksi.

The plane had been travelling from Yekaterinburg, TASS reported.

The defense ministry Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft made an emergency landing on Monday 30 kilometres from an airfield near the town of Tiksi in the Sakha Republic at 4.45am local time, the TASS news agency reported.

The ministry said 23 people had been airlifted to hospital, 16 of whom were in serious condition and three in "grave condition", TASS said, citing a local hospital official.

News reports had at first said there had been 27 deaths.

The ministry said a team of military investigators had been flown to the crash site.

Source: MENA