Strasbourg: One person was killed when a light aircraft crash-landed at an airport in eastern France on Wednesday, airport managers said.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear but it forced the closure of the main runway at the EuroAirport Bale-Mulhouse near the Swiss border.

The plane was a Piper PA-34 which “crashed as it was preparing to land near the main North-South runway and caught fire”, airport management said in a statement.

It was not immediately known if there were any other people aboard the aircraft.

According to local press reports, the airport was blanketed by fog at the time of the accident in the late afternoon.