Air ambulance crashes near Kenya's capital killing 6

A plane belonging to an air ambulance service provider crashed into a residential area just outside the Kenya's capital on Thursday, the aircraft's owner said.

AMREF Flying Doctors said that the mid-size jet, a Cessna Citation XLS, took off from an airport in Nairobi and was heading to the territory of Somaliland when it crashed.

The service provider didn't provide the number of casualties or a possible cause, saying in a statement that it was “cooperating fully with relevant aviation authorities and emergency response teams to establish the facts surrounding the situation.”

It said that more information would be provided later.

The Kenya Red Cross said that its rescue teams headed to the crash scene in Kiambu, a county that shares a border with Nairobi.

Earlier, the Kenya Red Cross had said that the aircraft that had crashed was a helicopter.

The local Star newspaper reported that the crash prompted “a swift response from authorities.”

Military and police personnel “quickly arrived at the scene and secured the area,” the paper reported.

Kenyan government officials didn't provide any immediate details.