Soldiers in Malawi search forests for missing plane carrying vice president

Malawi vice president Saulos Chilima, left, greets government officials upon his return from South Korea in Lillongwe on Sunday, June 9 (STR/AP)

Soldiers are searching mountainous forests near a city in northern Malawi after a military plane carrying the country’s vice president and a former first lady went missing in the area, President Lazarus Chakwera said.

The plane carrying 51-year-old vice president Saulos Chilima, former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri and eight others left the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, at 9.17am on Monday and had been expected to land 45 minutes later at Mzuzu International Airport, about 230 miles to the north.