Thirteen injured and pilot killed as plane hits Beijing's tallest building

Thirteen people were injured and the pilot was killed when a light aircraft crashed into a Beijing skyscraper on Friday.

Authorities in the Chaoyang business district gave the casualty figures as it confirmed a two-seater sport plane had crashed at 5.55pm.

The statement on WeChat did not comment on the cause but said an investigation was under way.

It also didn't name the building involved. However, footage online showed debris falling from the 528-metre CITIC Tower, also known as ​China Zun, in Beijing's central business district.

Two bystanders told Reuters news agency the plane was no bigger than a car.

Dozens of police cars and several ⁠fire trucks lined the roads around the ​building and two glass panels appeared to be damaged.

Police stopped some people from taking pictures and asked ​others to delete those they had taken.

One witness, a courier, told Reuters he'd taken a video of the plane sticking out the building but deleted it out of fear of being caught by police.

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The courier said he had rushed over ‌to the tower at around 6pm after hearing the crash.

"It was so loud - louder than fireworks," he said.

Posts of the building were quickly removed from Chinese social media on Friday.