A cargo plane with eight people on board crashed near the city of Kavala in northern Greece late on Saturday, the fire brigade and state TV said.

State TV ERT reported that the aircraft was an Antonov An-12 owned by a Ukrainian company, which was flying from Serbia to Jordan. The pilot had requested an emergency landing due to an engine problem but the aircraft’s signal was lost.

Video footage uploaded on ertnews.gr showed the aircraft in flames descending fast before crashing.

Fire brigades and EKAV ambulances were immediately dispatched to the crash site.

The power supply was interrupted in nearby villages. According to the information, the fall occurred 10 kilometers north of Eleftheroupolis-Kavala, in Nikisiani. Eyewitnesses report that residents saw the fire from afar, and explosions were also heard.

Two ΕΜΑΚ squads rush to the scene to begin an investigation.

The pilot of a Ukrainian commercial aircraft sent a distress signal to the control tower of Chrysoupoli airport. A little later, it was seen how it caught fire near the village of Paleochori, Kavala.

A Chinook with a special chemical weapons crew is leaving Athens to participate in the investigations. This is the Special Interbranch Nuclear Biological Chemical Defence Company of the 14-member Hellenic General Defence Staff (GEETHA), whose men will investigate the area where the accident occurred and see how accessible it is.

Until the special team of the Armed Forces arrives, no one is permitted to enter the area which has been cordoned off in a radius of at least 500 metres. The Fire Service reports that there is a high pyrothermal load around the aircraft.