Small plane crashes on city street in Japan

A small plane crashed into a city street in western Japan, scattering debris across a neighbourhood crowded with factories and restaurants.

A small plane crashed into a city street in western Japan on Tuesday, scattering debris across a neighbourhood crowded with factories and restaurants. The two men aboard escaped with light injuries, and no one else was hurt.

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The Cessna slammed into a sidestreet beside a throughfare in Yao city, tearing off a wing and buckling its body nearly in half. The two men inside escaped the wreck and were taken to a hospital.

"The area is crowded with machinery and printing factories, shops, restaurants and houses," said Tadafumi Tanabe, a Yao fire department official. "If the plane had crashed into any of those sites, we could have seen a major disaster. It's pure luck."

A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy, said no paedestrians were wounded and the crash caused no damage to nearby buildings.

The cause of the accident, in the urban sprawl surrounding Osaka, Japan's second-largest city, was under investigation.