Five people have died after the light plane they were travelling on crashed into a retail outlet near Essendon Airport this morning.
The plane crashed into the side of the DFO shopping centre, causing fire to break out with images from the scene showing black smoke billowing into the air.
A spokesperson from Victorian police said “it looks like no-one has survived the crash”.
Police said the pilot made a mayday call and tried to turn the plane around before crashing into the building.
A spokesperson from the DFO said stores were not open at the time of the crash, but there were staff on site.
There is no word yet on whether any staff were injured in the crash.
The charter flight was heading to King Island and crashed shortly after take-off at 9:00am, with witnesses saying they saw the plane coming in fast before slamming into the building and exploding into flames.
Victoria’s Police Minister Lisa Neville told reporters debris had been spread onto the motorway, which was likely to result in at least partial road closures.
As this is a breaking news story, Starts at 60 will update this story with information as it comes to hand.