London Southend Airport will remain closed until further notice after a plane crashed in a "fireball".
Essex Police said they were alerted shortly before 4pm on Sunday to "reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane" at the airport.
Officers investigating the crash called it a "serious incident" although there has been no confirmation of the number of casualties.
Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in The Netherlands, confirmed its SUZ1 flight had been “involved in an accident” at London Southend Airport.
The airport remains closed this morning
REUTERS/PA
Zeusch Aviation’s website says the plane can be used for medical flights to transport patients or organs. It has also been deployed for aerial mapping flights.
The plane had flown from the Greek capital Athens to Pula in Croatia on Sunday before heading to Southend. It was scheduled to return to Lelystad on Sunday night.
The airport announced on Sunday night it was closed until further notice, with all arriving and departing flights cancelled.
EasyJet has confirmed that it will operate all flights originally departing from Southend via other London airports today, with a spokesman urging passengers to check ahead.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS FROM SOUTHEND
MAPPED: Where did the jet crash - and what has been shut down afterwards?GB NEWS
Emergency services at the scene in Southend last night
GETTY
Southend Airport said: “Our thoughts are with those affected by today’s events and all passengers impacted by this disruption.
"We will restart flight operations as soon as possible and will continue to update the public on developments."
John Johnson, who was at the airport with his children and wife on Sunday, said they saw a “big fireball” after the plane crashed “head first into the ground”.
Johnson, from Billericay, told reporters: "We all waved at the pilots, and they all waved back at us. The aircraft then turned 180 degrees to face its take-off, departure, powered up, rolled down the runway.
"It took off and about three or four seconds after taking off, it started to bank heavily to its left, and then within a few seconds of that happening, it more or less inverted and crashed just head first into the ground."
Passengers outside the terminal building at Southend Airport in Essex
PA
James Philpott told the BBC: "I was just basically in a hut like in the middle of the course and I didn’t even see any plane go down or anything and I just felt like a big heat wave come through and I looked up and there was just a massive fireball basically 100 foot in the sky.
"It was more the heat really just kind of hit me as I was sitting there, just like, feel like I’m baking...I think everyone was just quite shocked to be honest.
"People were sort of running towards it to see if anyone was injured or anything."
In a post on social media Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the incident as "tragic", adding that her "thoughts are with all those involved" and that she was "monitoring the situation and closely receiving regular updates."