By Ria Novosti. Europe, 09:30 AM IST

Guatemala City, May 15 (EFE) At least six people were killed when a small plane crashed into a house in the Guatemalan capital, authorities said.

A fire department spokesman told the media that the victims - five men and one woman, including the pilot and several municipal employees and university professors who were travelling to Belize - were trapped inside the plane and 'possibly burned to death as a result of the fire' that broke out on impact.

Earlier, the head of the Civil Aeronautics Office, Jose Carlos, told Emisoras Unidas radio that the six-seat Seneca aircraft crashed for unknown reasons shortly after taking off from La Aurora amid rain.

'There were five passengers and the pilot. ... The aircraft, according to a report from the control tower, was going north to south and suddenly turned to the left and crashed onto a house,' Carlos said, without identifying the dead.

A spokesman for the Conred emergency management office said that the plane - which belonged to the private firm Aeroservicios - actually hit the ground in the yard of the house, which was unoccupied and therefore there were no additional victims.

By Ria Novosti (Staff Writer, © IANS)