Beijing (PTI): A Chinese passenger plane with 132 people on board crashed in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, the regional emergency management department said.

The Boeing 737 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which flew from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, causing a mountain fire, the department was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The 132 people included 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on its website.

The number of casualties is not clear yet, the report said.

Rescuers have been assembled and are approaching the site.

According to news portal The Paper, a staff member at Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport said that flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou has not arrived at its destined time, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The domestic flight was scheduled to take off from Kunming at 1.10 pm (local time) and arrive at Guangzhou at 2.52 pm (local time) and is now marked out of reach on Baiyun airport's app.

Following the accident, videos and pictures purporting to come from the scene started circulating on social media showing smoke billowing from a hillside and wreckage on the ground.

China Eastern is one of China's three major air carriers.

China's airlines had recorded over 100 million continuous hours of safe flight as of February 19, according to Zhu Tao, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration, the Post reported.

The last domestic fatal incident was in 2010, when a plane crashed in Yichun, Heilongjiang province, killing 42 people.

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Hassan (Karnataka), May 11: BJP leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda, arrested for alleged molestation and rape, was on Saturday remanded to 14 days judicial custody.

The BJP leader was arrested at the Gulihal toll gate by the Hiriyur Police in Chitradurga district late Friday night. He was arrested on a tip-off by the Hassan Police.

Earlier on Saturday, he was taken to Holenarasipura in Hassan district, where the incident had allegedly taken place, for questioning, police said.

He was then produced before a Magistrate, who remanded him to 14 days' judicial custody.

ALSO READ: BJP leader Devaraje Gowda taken to Holenarasipura in molestation and rape case

An FIR was registered against Gowda on a complaint by a 36-year-old woman from Hassan district, who alleged that he molested and raped her on the pretext of helping her sell her property.

A case of molestation was registered against Gowda on April 1. On Friday, the woman once again approached the police and alleged that she was also raped by him, a police officer told PTI.

The Holenarasipur police arrived in Chitradurga on Saturday morning. After the legal process, the Hiriyur police handed over Gowda to Holenarasipura police.

Gowda had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 assembly election on the BJP ticket and was defeated by JD(S) MLA and former minister H D Revanna.

He had also claimed that he alerted the BJP leadership last year about Prajwal Revanna's alleged sexual abuse of several women, and cautioned the saffron party not to give a Lok Sabha ticket to the JD(S) MP from Hassan.

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