An airplane crash in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least 70 dead, DRC government officials have told news agencies. There are at least six known survivors.

The airplane, operated by Hewa Bora, a private airline based in the DRC, crashed into a neighborhood of Goma shortly after taking  off. Goma is a major city in the eastern DRC.

The governor of North Kivu, Juilen Paluku, told the Associated Press that it is unclear how many people died in the airplane and how many people were killed on the ground.

"We have already picked up many bodies - dozens of bodies," Paluku told the AP. "There are a lot of flames which makes it difficult to know if the bodies... are those of passengers of the plane or else passers-by or people that lived in the area where the plane crashed."

Reuters is reporting that of the six survivors, two were pilots and two were children.

The neighborhood where the plane crashed is a commercial area that would have been very busy at the time of the crash.

"Half of the plane was broken off," a crash witness told Reuters. "There is a fire towards the back. People are coming with buckets of water to put out the fire. The [United Nations] is here trying to keep back the crowds."

In 2002, lava flow from a volcanic eruption damaged one-third of the runway at Goma's airport. Local sources in the aviation industry have told the British Broadcasting Corporation that this makes Goma a difficult airport from which to take off.