KARACHI: At least 12 people were killed when a Russian-made cargo plane crashed in a fireball seconds after taking off from Karachi on Sunday, a spokesman for Pakistan's civil aviation authority said.

Rescue workers recovered 12 bodies from the crash site, including four identified as local labourers, and the death toll was expected to rise.

Authorities said the Ilyushin IL-76 operated by Georgian airline Sunway slammed into buildings soon after refuelling and taking off from the airport in Pakistan's business capital.

The plane was carrying eight crew members and 31 tons of supplies for Sudanese capital Khartoum and the crash was so severe that fire engulfed two buildings, as well as adjacent construction sites, the spokesman said.

“Rescue workers have recovered 12 dead bodies, these include eight crew members and four labourers on ground,” Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman Pervez George earlier told AFP.

George has already announced that all eight people on board have have been died.

Authorities said they had brought the fire under control but rescue workers were still searching for bodies.

“Rescue workers are still digging the debris. There may be more more dead bodies under it,” he said.

“We do not know the exact number of those killed on ground,” he added.

Police has also confirmed that at least 12 dead bodies have been recovered from the crash site but the search was still continuing.

“Rescue workers have recovered 12 dead bodies, we are still searching for more,” police official Shad Masih told AFP.

Police surgeon for southern Sindh province Hamid Parhiar earlier said nine bodies had been brought to different hospitals.

“Three of them are local labourers. The rest of six dead bodies are badly mutilated and beyond recognition,” he told AFP by telephone.

The plane crashed into buildings under construction in the Dalmai neighbourhood, where the Pakistan Air Force and Navy have residential apartments and offices close to Jinnah International airport, witnesses said.

It was the third plane accident in four months in Pakistan, a country of 170 million people where inter-city travel is most efficient by air, and the second aircraft to crash after takeoff from Karachi in just four weeks.

An AFP reporter saw pieces of flesh being recovered from the debris by medics.

George told AFP that the jet took off from Karachi at 1:45 am (20:45 GMT Saturday) and crashed just 90 seconds later.

Witnesses spoke of their horror at seeing a fireball racing through the night sky.

“I saw a fireball plummeting to ground,” milk seller Mohammad Raees told AFP. He had been going home on his motorbike after closing his shop.

“It was so huge and quick. I was terrified.

“I couldn't see what it was. I sped up to save my life and after a few seconds I heard a deafening explosion, but thanks to Allah my life was saved and I was not injured.”The explosion caused by the crash was so powerful that local residents thought it was triggered by a bomb, Karachi police chief Fayyas Leghari said.

The crash sparked fires in four or five construction sites, but officials said the number of casualties would have been far higher if the plane had struck nearby residential buildings.

A CAA official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said the plane crashed close to Navy residential apartments.

The site was near a military-controlled area where a Pakistani twin-engine turboprop crashed after take off from the city on November 5, killing all 21 people on board.

The US-manufactured Beech 1900C aircraft operated by local company JS Air was carrying staff from an Italian oil company to an oil field in Sindh.

On July 28, an Airbus passenger jet operated by Airblue crashed into hills near the Pakistani capital Islamabad while coming in to land after a flight from Karachi, killing 152 people on board.