BOGOTA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed when a small plane crashed on Sunday in a residential district of Popayan, a town in southwest Colombia, officials confirmed.

Rescuers work at the site where a plane crashed at the Junin neighborhood in Popayan, southwestern Colombia, on September 15, 2019. (Photo: AFP)

The aircraft, which belonged to an airline called Transpacifico, crashed shortly after taking off from Payan, capital of Cauca department, Colombia's civil aeronautics agency said in a statement.

According to preliminary reports, the twin-engine Piper PA-31-350, which was headed from Popayan to Lopez de Micay, another city in Cauca, crashed at 2 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) after suffering from mechanical failures.