Photos: Plane carrying 72 people crashes in Nepal

A passenger plane has crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal, killing at least 16 people on board.

There were 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines when it crashed on Sunday, according to airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the plane was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara in central Nepal, and urged security personnel and the general public to help with the rescue efforts.

Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside crash site.

The ATR72 is a widely used twin-engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.

The resort town of Pokhara is 200km (125 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.