Plane Crashed Twelve People Died

Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar said the plane's tail had scraped the runway twice during take-off, leaving marks.

The passenger jet crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people but leaving dozens of survivors.

The Bek Air plane was flying from Almaty - Kazakhstan's largest city - to the capital Nur-Sultan when it smashed into a building just after take-off.

The Fokker 100 aircraft had 93 passengers and five crew members on board. Survivors described walking from the wreckage into the dark and snow.

Dozens are being treated in hospital. The cause of the crash is unclear. 

A Reuters news agency reporter close to the scene said there was heavy fog at the time.

The interior ministry initially said 15 people had been killed, but it later revised the number of victims down to 12.

Kazakhstan's aviation committee has suspended all Bek Air flights as well as those involving Fokker 100 aircraft pending the results of the investigation.

The Flightradar24 information website said the flight departed at 07:21 (01:21 GMT), and "the last signal was received in that same minute".

The airport said the plane lost height at 07:22 before striking a concrete barrier and crashing into a two-storey building. There was no fire upon impact.

One survivor, businessman Aslan Nazaraliyev, told the BBC that the plane had begun vibrating violently. People screamed and the aircraft smashed into the ground.

He said part of the plane was crushed like "an aluminium can". He and others managed to get out and helped fellow passengers to safety.

"It was ugly. It was dark. We were lighting with cell phone lights," Mr Nazaraliyev said.

Another told news website Tengrinews she heard a "terrifying sound" before the plane started losing altitude.

"The plane was flying at a tilt. Everything was like in a movie: screaming, shouting, people crying," she said.

Mr Sklyar said that most of the passengers who died or suffered serious injuries were in the front part of the plane.

Eight people died at the scene, two while being treated at the airport and two in hospital, AFP news agency reports.

Some 67 people were injured in the accident, nine of them children, the health ministry said. Forty-nine were still in hospital on Friday evening, of whom eight people were said to be in a critical condition.

Most of those on board were Kazakh citizens although Chinese, Kyrgyz and Ukrainian nationals were reportedly among the injured. 

The captain has been confirmed as one of the fatalities.

The editor of the Informburo.kz website said one of its journalists, 35-year-old Dana Kruglova, was killed while flying to see her parents for New Year.