A small plane has crashed into the side of Beijing’s tallest skyscraper, known as the China Zun building, which towers over China’s capital city at a height of 522 meters. Details of casualties have not yet been confirmed by local authorities, although the building has been evacuated and surrounding roads have been closed.
The aircraft involved in the incident was a small two-seater Sunward SA60L Aurora sports aircraft with registration B-12PP.
The incident occurred at around 5:55 pm local time. The aircraft appears to have hit one of the tower’s higher floors, falling apart on impact, with the tail and back section of the plane falling to the ground below.
Eyewitness video captured by passersby shows a small fire at the bottom of the building as debris fell to the ground.
The skyscraper is located in Beijing’s central business district, close to the headquarters of state-owned national broadcaster CCTV. The cause of the crash has not yet been disclosed, although a heavy police presence around the site stopped witnesses from taking too much footage of the aftermath.
Videos of the incident posted to heavily censored social media sites within China have, apparently, been taken down by the authorities.
