More than 40 people were killed in a TranAsia passenger plane crashed in Taiwan on Wednesday, China's Xinhua news agency said..

Authorities said the plane, carrying 58 people including four crew, crashed near the airport on the outlying Penghu island.

"Fifty-one people are feared dead and seven people injured," Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration Shen Chi told reporters, but the local fire chief put the death toll at 45.