Emergency evacuations were ordered Friday afternoon after an aircraft struck Beijing’s tallest skyscraper.
The China Zun tower, standing 528 metres high, ranks among the 10 tallest buildings on the planet.
Video shared widely on social media appeared to capture debris dropping from the 109-floor landmark, along with what looked like the aircraft’s tail section and a taxi on the street below with a shattered window.
Photos from the scene showed two damaged windows on the side of the skyscraper, which sits in Chaoyang District, the capital’s bustling central business hub.
Crowds were seen leaving the high-rise as firefighters, scores of police vehicles and an ambulance converged on the area.
Also called Citic Tower, the building serves as the headquarters of Citic Group, one of China’s largest state-owned financial conglomerates.
Authorities have not yet confirmed whether there were any casualties.
Images that appeared to show the plane’s registration code suggested it may have been a domestically made Sunward SA 60L Aurora light sport aircraft belonging to a local general aviation company.
Unverified flight data from Flightradar24 appeared to show a severely deviated flight path for the aircraft.
An aircraft crashed into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper on Friday afternoon, triggering emergency evacuations
Photographs show two smashed windows in the side of the building, which is located in the capital’s busy central business district, Chaoyang District
Dramatic footage circulating on social media showed debris falling from the 109-story tower, as well as a tail section of the plane and a broken window of a taxicab on the ground
Police prevented some people from taking pictures and asked others to delete those they had taken while ushering people away from the building.
There was no immediate official comment and Beijing’s municipal government did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters outside of business hours.
A courier said he had rushed over to CITIC Tower around 6pm local time (1000 GMT) from a nearby location after hearing a loud crash as a aircraft about the size of a car hit the building.
‘It was so loud – louder than fireworks,’ he said.
He added he had shot a video of the aircraft sticking out of the building, but later deleted it because he was scared of getting caught by police.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Mocked by New Washington Joke Sparking Buzz Across the Capital
Another courier whom Reuters spoke to said he had come to the scene after seeing unverified social media images showing wreckage of a small aircraft on a road next to the building.
Social media posts of the building on Friday were quickly removed from Chinese social media.
A search of the building’s name on the Xiaohongshu app returned only posts dated Thursday.
People were seen evacuating from the skyscraper as fire engines, dozens of police cars and an ambulance arrived at the scene
Images showing the aircraft’s registration code seemed to point to a domestically manufactured light sport plane, a Sunward SA 60L Aurora, owned by a local general aviation business
Unverified flight data from Flightradar24 appeared to show a severely deviated flight path for the aircraft
Police prevented some people from taking pictures and asked others to delete those they had taken while ushering people away from the building
A man points a mobile phone at CITIC Tower, also known as China Zun, where damage is visible on a high floor of the exterior, in Beijing, China June 26
A police officer told Reuters journalists to depart from the scene. Asked why they had to leave, the police officer said: ‘We all know why!’
Beijing maintains some of the world’s strictest controls over its airspace and restrictions are particularly tight around the capital’s urban area, where drones and private light aircraft are banned from flying without special authorisation.
The Central Business District is located just a few kilometres from Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party’s leadership headquarters.
Airspace restrictions and limits on the construction of towers in the vicinity are intended in part to protect the security of the compound.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow
