A TransAsia Airways plane hit a bridge and dived into a river near the capital Taipei in Taiwan, leaving at least 11 people confirmed dead, and 19 others still missing.

Local rescue teams rushed to the side of the plane, which sank in the Keelung river, using small boats trying to save about 30 people still inside the mangled wreckage. Reuters reported that some 28 people made it to safety as of 4 p.m. local time.

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Authorities said several others were hurt in the domestic flight that had 58 people on board.

Taiwan's Central News Agency broadcast a recording of the plane struggling to stay up when it clipped a river crossing and ended up in the water.

The video apparently taken from inside a passing vehicle showed the plane trying to ascend, hitting a cab and narrowly plowing into a bridge before settling into the river.

CNA reported that the ATR-72 jet had just taken off from Taipei's Songshan Airport bound for the outlying Kinmen islands, near the coast of southeast China.

The capital's air traffic control lost contact with the plane at around 11 in the morning, local time.

Television reports showed rescuers pulling passengers out of the plane with ropes while standing on visible parts of the mangled wreckage.

Passengers and crew who were pulled out were then taken into small boats and rowed to shore.

Out of the 58 people in the plane, five are crewmembers and the remaining 53 are believed to be passengers. Reports said 31 of the passengers are tourists from mainland China.

The BBC reported the tourists from the mainland could have been on their way home as many passengers visit Taiwan through Kinmen Island.

In July last year, four dozen people were killed when a TransAsia Airways jet crashed amid bad weather in Taiwan's Penghu archipelago.

TagsTaiwan plane crash, TransAsia Airways