A small passenger plane has crashed over the mountains in Nepal with 23 people including children on board.
The Tara Air flight lost contact after it left Pokhara for Jomsom this morning. The journey should have taken 18 minutes.
"A plane that took off from Pokhara for Jomsom this morning is out of contact," Tara Air spokesman Bhim Raj Rai told AFP.
"There are 18 passengers, including two foreigners, and three crew members, on board."
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed the plane had crashed but added that no British nationals were on board.
Jomson is a popular trekking destination in the Himalayas for visiting the Mount Annapurna and the Mustang region, and for Hindu pilgrims visiting the Muktinath temple.
It is a short flight from Pokhara, which lies 225 kilometres west of Kathmandu.
Nepal, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake last April and has suffered a number of air disasters in recent years, affecting its tourism industry.
