At least nine people died on Sunday when a small plane crashed in the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities said.
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“There are nine deaths confirmed by the civil defence, and there are no survivors of the plane,” Cleber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the state civil police, told Agence France-Presse.
“Unfortunately, initial reports indicate that the aircraft’s occupants did not survive,” Governor Eduardo Leite said in a post on social media.
According to the public security office of Rio Grande do Sul state, at least 15 people were taken to the city’s hospital, most of them suffering from smoke inhalation caused by the fire triggered by the crash.
The plane reportedly first struck the chimney of a building, then the second floor of a house, before crashing into a furniture shop, authorities said. Debris also reached a nearby inn.
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Nestled in a mountainous region, Gramado is the most popular tourist destination in Rio Grande do Sul, which was severely affected earlier this year by unprecedented floods that claimed dozens of lives, destroyed infrastructure and significantly disrupted the state’s economy.