Residents of a village near the site of a plane crash which is believed to have killed Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said they had heard a bang, then saw the jet plummet to the ground.
The plane, an Embraer Legacy 600private jet, crashed on Wednesday near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia's Tver region on its way from Moscow to St Petersburg and killed all 10 people on board – seven passengers and three crew members.
There has been no official comment from the Kremlin or the defence ministry on the fate of Prigozhin but a Telegram channel linked to his Wagner mercenary group, Grey Zone, pronounced him dead.
A Reuters reporter at the crash site early on Thursday saw men taking away black body bags on stretchers.
Part of the plane's blue-and-white liveried tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area.
Forensic investigators had erected a tent and lighting gear. Parts of the wreckage lay near what appeared to be a half-built abandoned structure.
Kuzhenkino resident Vitaly Stepenok, 72, told Reuters: "I hear an explosion or a bang. Usually, if an explosion happens on the ground then you get an echo, but it was just a bang and I looked up and saw white smoke."
"One wing flew off in one direction and the fuselage went like that," he said, gesturing with his arms to show how the plane headed down towards the ground.
"And then it glided down on one wing. It didn't nose-dive, it was gliding."
(Reuters)
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