Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan

An Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia has crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan with 72 people on board, Kazakh authorities have said.

Among those on board were 67 passengers and five crew members, Kazakh authorities said.

Authorities also said that 32 people are known to have survived, but no details were given in relation to the other people on board.

The Central Asian country's emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that survivors were being treated at a nearby hospital.

Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km from the Kazakh city of Aktau.

Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.

Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Following the crash, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, was returning home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit, Russia's RIA news agency reported.