Aeroflot passenger jet crashes in Russian mountains killing 88 passengers and crew

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The Boeing 737-500 airplane was on an internal flight from Moscow when it ploughed into wasteland while attempting to land in the city of Perm at around 3.40am.

Russia's main east-west railway has also been closed after debris from the wreckage covered tracks. Perm is around 750 miles (1,200km) east of Moscow.

Flames from the aircraft can be seen across the city after it crashed in wasteland

Wreckage: Part of the landing gear of the Aeroflot flight

Russian television pictures showed firefighters walking around the smouldering remains of the plane.

Investigators have found two black recording boxes from the crash site which they hope will reveal why the 16-year-old Boeing crashed. There is no suggestion of an attack or sabotage.

Irina Andrianova, an Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman, said: 'There were 88 people on board, 82 passengers and six crew.

'All of them died. There were no casualties on the ground.'

Firefighters and crash investigators work on a railway near the crash site. Debris which fell on the track forced it to be closed

Wreckage of the Aeroflot flight is shown on Russian national television

The 21 foreign nationals killed included nine from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine and one person from France, Switzerland, Latvia, the U.S., Germany, Turkey and Italy.

Seven children were among those killed and Russian news agencies are reporting one of the dead was General Gennady Troshev who commanded the Russian army against rebels in Chechnya in 2000.

Russian aviation has been trying to shake off its patchy record and today's accident was the worst crash involving a Russian airliner since at least 170 people died in 2006 when a TU-154 plane crashed in Ukraine.