A small passenger plane crashes just minutes after reportedly hitting a bird during take-off from the capital Kathmandu.

Police say everyone on board the twin-engine propeller-driven Dornier aircraft died in the accident, also including five Chinese and seven Nepalese.

The company said the group had arrived in Nepal on Wednesday and were due to begin trekking in the northeastern Khumbu region, around Everest. They were with two Nepalese leaders.

Owned by private firm Sita Air, the plane had taken off for Lukla in the Mount Everest region when it plunged into the banks of the Manohara River near Tribhuvan Airport.

The pilot reported trouble two minutes after take-off in clear weather and Kathmandu airport official Ratish Chandra Suman said the plane had hit a bird.

“Immediately after the take-off, the air traffic controllers noticed the aircraft making unusual manoeuvres,” he said.

“When the controller asked the pilot about it, he said the plane had struck a bird.”

Nepal Police spokesman Binod Singh said: “The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river but unfortunately the plane caught fire.”

Nepal police officer Rajan Adhikari said: “The plane was engulfed in flames when we arrived.”

Local television channels showed dozens of soldiers and police officers picking through the smouldering wreckage of the aircraft with a large crowd of shocked bystanders watching.

A number of badly-burned bodies were laid in a line a few metres from the plane’s shattered fuselage.

A witness told Kantipur Television: “I was just walking and saw a plane landing. It was on fire and I even heard people inside the plane screaming.”

Harimaya Tamang, who lives near the crash site, said: “The plane hit the ground, bounced once but it did not break.

“The plane was already on fire, the local people rushed with buckets and tried to put out the flames but it was too hot and people could not get close enough.”

It is the sixth fatal crash in Nepal in less than two years. Aircraft and pilots often have to contend with bad weather and difficult landing strips in the Himalayan nation.

The British Foreign Office said it was “urgently” seeking to confirm the number of dead and their identities.

“The embassy in Kathmandu is in contact with the Nepalese authorities and the British ambassador has already been to the hospital where we understand the bodies were taken,” a spokeswoman said.

Thousands of Westerners head to the Himalayas every year to trek in the region around Mt Everest, the world’s highest peak. Autumn is the peak climbing season in Nepal.

More than 377,000 tourists arrived in Kathmandu in the first eight months of this year, according to the tourism board.

The country has a poor road network and large numbers of tourists, pilgrims and climbers rely on Nepal’s 16 domestic airlines and 49 airports to reach remote areas.

Name of British plane Crash victims

Raymond Eagle, 58, Christopher Davey, 51, Vincent Kelly, 50, Darren Kelly, 45, Timothy Oakes, 57, Stephen Holding, 60, and Benjamin Ogden,