Eight people die in plane crash in Northern Italy

The plane crashed into an uninhabited building that was under reconstruction on Saturday, and witnesses said the aircraft's engine was engulfed in flames and it came crashing straight down.

Eight people have died in a small private plane's crash in Italy's northern town of San Donato Milanese, the Lombardy regional emergency medical service (Areu) said on Sunday.

Italy's flight safety agency launched an investigation of the accident. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the plane crashed into an uninhabited building that was under reconstruction on Saturday. According to witnesses, the plane's engine was engulfed in flames and it came crashing straight down. The crash caused a fire in the building that was put out by the Lombardy fire service. A fire service spokesperson said that they had retrieved one body.

Areu said that the plane's two pilots and six passengers, including one child, have died.

The country's flight safety agency launched an investigation of the accident, which involved a single-engine Pilatus PC-12 plane that departed from Milan Linate Airport to Sardinia.

The RaiNews24 broadcaster reported that the plane was piloted by a Romanian citizen, while one of the passengers was a French national.