A small plane has crashed into several buildings in north-east Philadelphia, setting homes and vehicles ablaze, and reportedly injuring people on the ground.
Multiple people were aboard the plane when it crashed on Friday evening, officials said.
Emergency crews have rushed to the scene during evening rush hour, and are appealing for the public to stay away from the crash site.
It is unclear what led to the crash, who was aboard the plane or if there are any survivors.
The crash happened just blocks from the Roosevelt Mall, a three-story shopping centre in a densely populated part of the Pennsylvania city, according to BBC’s US partner CBS News.
The area where the crash occurred is filled with terraced housing and shops.
Disturbing video of the incident online show the plane coming down quickly and sparking a huge fireball that rocketed into the sky.
Witnesses describes shrapnel from the crash damaging cars, and strewing burning debris in the streets.
The plane, a Learjet 55, took off from from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport about 18:30 local time and crashed less than four miles (6.4km) away, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The FAA said in a statement that the flight was en-route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating.
Weather forecasts in the area show it’s been a cloudy and rainy evening with winds measured around 10 to 20 mph.
One witness told local media that the explosion “lit up the whole sky”.
“I just saw a plane basically hit the building and it exploded. The sky lit up and I pulled over and basically, it was just real bad around here,” the witness told WPVI-TV, describing the crash as feeling like an earthquake.
Ryan Tian, 23, told The Philadelphia Inquirer said he was getting dinner when he saw a “massive fireball” that turned the sky orange.
“I thought we were getting attacked by something,” he said. As he saw people start to flee, he decided to get “outta there”.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro wrote on X that he’s in touch with local authorities and is “offering all Commonwealth resources as they respond to the small private plane crash”.
The plane crash comes just days after a much larger collision happened between a commercial jet and a military helicopter in Washington DC, where officials suspect all 67 people aboard both aircraft were killed.
