A civil plane carrying skydivers crashed in the eastern French town of Tomblen, killing 11 people, local authorities said.
According to local officials, 10 passengers, including the pilot, 5 students, and 5 instructors, died in this accident.
The plane used by the parachute school crashed while taking off from Nancy-Essay Airfield, local media reported.
Police urged the public to avoid the area around the airport in the Mörthe-et-Moselle department.
French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarro said he and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez were traveling to the crash site, calling it a “terrible tragedy.”
Yves Seguy, the eastern governor of Mörthe-et-Moselle, said no bystanders were injured in the incident, according to AFP.
AFP reported that the accident occurred in a dense building area near a shopping center.
In an interview with French broadcaster BFM, Segey said, “The plane fell almost vertically and landed on the edge of the airfield, right near a housing complex,” adding, “It was fortunate that there were no additional casualties.”
Half of the skydivers who died were nurses, Thierry Pechey, president of the independent nurses’ group Moerte-et-Moselle branch, told BFM.
Local officials also said relatives of the victims were at the airfield when the crash occurred. They were reportedly there to watch the dive where five students had their first skydiving experience.
A witness to the crash, who declined to be identified, told Reuters he saw the plane veering to the right as he passed by.
“Something was clearly wrong,” he said.
The man said he did not see the crash due to the embankment on the side of the road, but heard it.
When he arrived on scene, he tried to help extinguish the burning wreckage of the plane.
“We immediately determined that everything was dead. There was no movement and it was clear that the impact was so severe that there could have been no survivors.”
Chaynesse Khirouni, president of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department, told local media a team of experts was on the way to investigate the cause of the incident.
