Bodies pulled from crashed plane

Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of some of the 24 passengers from the wreckage of a plane which crashed in Venezuela.

Rutaca Flight 224, with a crew of four and 20 passengers, crashed near a hotel after taking off from the city of Ciudad Bolivar.

The cause of the crash of the DC-3 aircraft is not known.

The passengers included three US citizens, five Dutch nationals, four Italians, two Hungarians, two Venezuelans, one Austrian and possibly three Canadians. All four Venezuelan crew members were killed.

The aging DC-3 propeller plane burst into flames upon impact, setting fire to homes and showering the Abobo shantytown in Ciudad Bolivar with debris. A 22-year-old female resident and her two children have been treated for burns.

Reports that six US citizens were on board apparently were based on erroneous information provided to Venezuelan authorities by Rutaca Airlines.

Witnesses say they saw the plane come down with one of its two engines on fire, smash into a large tree and burst into flames. A wing spun off, slamming into the homes, said Jose Laurencia Silva, a reporter for the newspaper El Expreso Bolivar.