Eight foreigners were among 23 people who died in a plane crash in Azerbaijan, officials confirmed today.
The Antonov An-140 aircraft, bound for the Kazakh city of Aktau, disappeared from radar screens soon after take-off from the Azeri capital Baku on last night.
"There are eight citizens of foreign states among the dead," a Baku airport official, who declined to be named, told reporters.
The official said the foreigners were an Australian, a Turk, a Georgian, four Kazakhs and a British citizen.
A police official said the crash was believed to have been caused by technical problems and ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
The An-140 is a relatively new short-range passenger plane designed in the 1990s. The aircraft, which has two propeller engines and can carry up to 52 passengers, is produced jointly by Ukraine and Russia.
Witnesses have said that before crashing, the plane was making slow circles as if the crew were trying to direct it away from residential areas.
The wreckage of the plane, which carried 18 passengers and five crew, was later found on the sea shore near Nardaran on the outskirts of Baku.
Azerbaijan, situated on the Caspian Sea, is a former Soviet republic with a thriving oil and gas industry.