Chile police plane crashes in capital, kills 11

By Antonio de la Jara

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A small police plane crashed into a sports field in Chile's capital on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people including five who were exercising in a public park, officials said.

The plane crashed shortly after taking off from a nearby airfield. It had experienced technical difficulties and the pilot was attempting an emergency landing onto the field in Santiago's Penalolen municipality, police said.

Police said the plane's six occupants -- two flight instructors and four students aged 18 to 20 -- died.

Five other people, including a woman and her 4-year-old child, were killed on the ground on the playing field as they tried to escape the plane. Witnesses said it nose-dived into the area where they were exercising and burst into flames.

"I saw the plane hit some railings, I saw the flames and I saw people I knew screaming ... . The ladies were on the ground and we were throwing them wet towels," said Bernarda Espinoza, whose house sits 20 yards (meters) from where the Cessna plane crashed.

At least 10 people were injured on the field where the plane hit the ground. Some 30 grandmothers, mothers and children were there at the time.

"Grandmothers and children were doing aerobics. Most of them managed to escape, but some were trapped," one witness told local television.

Penalolen is a middle-class neighborhood in southeastern Santiago that has seen rapid growth in recent years.

(Reporting by Antonio de la Jara, additional reporting by Monica Vargas and Pav Jordan; Editing by Xavier Briand)