DHL cargo plane crashes in Lithuania, killing one

A DHL cargo plane crashed early Monday near the airport in Lithuania's capital, killing one person, authorities said as they searched for clues to what caused the tragedy.

Lithuanian officials, who in the past weeks have been probing alleged acts of sending incendiary devices on Western-bound cargo planes, stopped short of linking the crash with that investigation.

"It is premature to associate it with anything or to make any attributions," State Security Department chief Darius Jauniskis told reporters.

Images from the crash site in the capital Vilnius showed debris from the plane and packages on fire scattered across the residential area cordoned off by the emergency services.

"We cannot rule out the case of terrorism. We have warned that such things are possible, we see an increasingly aggressive Russia... but we cannot make any attributions or point fingers yet," Jauniskis said.

According to the Lithuanian police, the plane, flying from the eastern German city of Leipzig, skidded several hundred metres, hitting the residential house which was set on fire, smaller buildings, and a car.

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Renatas Pozela, head of the firefighting and rescue department, said one person from the plane's four-member crew died in the crash that happened as the plane was due to land in Vilnius.

Head of National Crisis Management Centre Vilmantas Vitkauskas said the residential building was successfully evacuated, with its 12 residents moved to safety.

'Emergency landing'

German logistics company DHL said the cargo aircraft was operated by its partner SwiftAir and had made an "emergency landing" in Lithuania.

"We can confirm that today, at approximately 4:30 am CET, a Swiftair aircraft, operated by a service partner on behalf of DHL, performed an emergency landing about one kilometre from VNO Airport (Vilnius, Lithuania) while en route from LEJ Airport (Leipzig, Germany) to VNO Airport," it said in a statement.

Lithuanian police Chief Arunas Paulauskas said investigators had gone to the hospital to talk to the pilots.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

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Earlier this month Lithuania said it had carried out arrests as part of a criminal probe into sending incendiary devices on Western-bound planes.

Polish and Lithuanian media said the devices, including electric massagers implanted with a flammable substance, were sent from Lithuania to the UK in July and could be behind a lorry fire outside Warsaw.

UK anti-terrorism police last month said they were investigating how a parcel burst into flames at a depot earlier this year, after a similar case in Germany blamed on Russia.

The Lithuanian president's chief security advisor said this month that Moscow had been behind the incidents.

"We know who the source of these operations is. It is Russian military intelligence," Kestutis Budrys told Ziniu radio.

"We cannot let this go unanswered as it will only escalate into the new kinds of actions," Budrys added.

Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members bordering Russia, are staunch allies of Ukraine, frequently warning about Russian-inspired sabotage on EU soil.

Source: AFP