At least nine people died Sunday morning after a small plane crashed in a shopping area in the tourist town of Gramado in southern Brazil, authorities said.
“There are nine deaths confirmed by the civil protection services and there are no survivors on the plane,” Commissioner Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the internal police department of the civil police of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.
Authorities have not confirmed at this stage the number of passengers and crew members on board the plane, a Piper Cheyenne 400. Civil Defense had earlier said that “according to provisional estimates, the plane was carrying ten people.
“Unfortunately, initial information indicates that none of the occupants of the plane survived,” state governor Eduardo Leite said on his X account.
The plane crashed “on the chimney of a building, then on the first floor of a house and finally on a furniture store,” the Rio Grande do Sul public security secretariat said in a statement. .
“An inn was also affected,” he added.
At least fifteen people were taken to hospital, most of them for inhaling smoke from the fire caused by the accident, which was brought under control by firefighters.
Gramado is a popular tourist town in Brazil, with an influx of visitors around Christmas time.
The plane took off from Canela, another tourist destination in Rio Grande do Sul.
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