A Nepali passenger aircraft crashed while landing at a newly opened airport in Pokhara on Sunday, killing at least 40 people, according to reports.

Video exclusive to Newsflare shows rescuers searching the crash site of the 72-seat plane, around a mile away from Pokhara International Airport.

The Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu to the central resort town of Pokhara was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreigners and four crew members.

A Nepal Army spokesperson said 16 dead bodies have so far been recovered from the wreckage.

At least 32 people died today in Nepal after a plane carrying about 72 people from the capital Kathmandu crashed in Pokhara this morning. 16 dead bodies have so far been recovered from the wreckage, a Nepal Army spokesperson said. There were 68 passengers and four crew members on board the plane that crashed between the old and new airports in the city, located in western Nepal. The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines was en route from Nepal's capital Kathmandu.

Rescue operations have been difficult because of a raging fire at the wreckage.According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the aircraft took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am.

The plane was close to landing at the Pokhara airport, when it crashed into a river gorge on the bank of the Seti River. The crash happened around 20 minutes after the take-off, suggesting the aircraft might have been on the descent. The flight time between the two cities is 25 minutes.