Eleven people are dead after a small plane crashed in the town of Tomblaine in northeastern France.

Authorities say the pilot and ten passengers perished. The victims included five students and five instructors from a parachutist school.

The aircraft had taken off from the Nancy-Essey airfield before the crash in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.

Police have closed the area around the airport. The French interior minister is traveling to the scene.