Plane crashes into Tokyo suburb 3 dead

(MENAFN- Arab News) TOKYO: Three people were killed Sunday when a small plane crashed into a Tokyo suburb shortly after takeoff police said leaving nearby homes and cars ablaze and the charred remains of the fuselage lying in a burnt-out residence.
The single-engine propeller aircraft with a 36-year-old pilot and four passengers on board crashed at around 11:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) shortly after leaving Chofu airport on the outskirts of the Japanese capital public broadcaster NHK reported.
'Two people from the airplane are confirmed dead and a person believed to be a local resident has also died' a spokesman for Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department told AFP.
'Thee other people from the airplane and two others on the ground were injured. Their condition is unknown.'
Local media reports said earlier that two men including the pilot and a woman on the ground were killed in the fiery crash.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw rescuers rushing to an ambulance carrying two victims on covered stretchers with the remains of the charred fuselage of the Piper PA-46 nearby.
At least three houses and two cars were on fire in the residential district of Chofu just some 500 meters from the airport.
The crash also damaged the roofs of other houses nearby while the plane's fuselage was left upside down in the charred remains of a home.
'At first I thought a large truck had crashed into a neighboring house as I heard the ground shake and then I then saw this ferocious smoke' a female witness told AFP.