London, Jul 13 (AP): Emergency services raced Sunday to the scene of a small plane crash at London Southend Airport.

In a statement on social media, the airport confirmed a “serious incident” involving what it termed a general aviation aircraft.

Essex Police said it had been alerted just before 4 pm local time to the “serious incident" at the relatively small airport, which is around 45 miles (72 kilometres) east of the capital.

Images posted on social media show a plume of fire and black smoke emanating from the crash site. The plane involved is said to be 12 metres (39 feet) long.

No details on where the plane was heading or how many people were on board were immediately disclosed.

“We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours," Essex Police said.

As a precaution due to their proximity to the incident, police evacuated a local golf club and rugby club.

The local member of parliament, David Burton-Sampson, urged people to stay away and let the emergency services do their work.

“My thoughts are with everyone involved," he said.

According to the airport's website, four flights scheduled to take off on Sunday afternoon were cancelled.

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Bengaluru, Aug 13 (PTI): Karnataka Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy on Wednesday accused the Centre of cutting fertilizer supplies to the state by 2.75 lakh metric tonnes (MT) between April and August this year, leading to a shortage for farmers.

Replying to a debate in the Assembly, he said Karnataka's annual allocation was 11.17 lakh MT, of which 5.55 lakh MT was supplied by April, along with an additional 20,000 MT. However, allocations later dropped by 10,000 MT in May, 79,000 MT in June and 58,000 MT in July.

"The Centre has asked states to use less Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and urea. There are two to three reasons, like import from Iran and China not happening, production in our country coming down and war," Chaluvarayaswamy claimed.

"Till August, the Centre supplied 2.75 lakh MT less fertilizer this year. You can call the Union Fertilizer Minister (J P Nadda) tomorrow and get the details. If there is any false information, I will face whatever punishment you decide," he said.

The minister said the state government was "distributing fertilizer in a controlled manner."

The opposition BJP, which raised the issue citing an acute urea shortage, accused the state government of "turning a blind eye to farmers' problems."

Heated exchanges forced a half-hour adjournment, after which BJP members staged a walkout.

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