Five people have died after a small plane carrying them crashed in Kericho, the west of Kenya.

The plane, piloted by a Kenyan national, was carrying four foreigners from Maasai Mara nature reserve when it crashed.

The police chief for the Rift Valley region said the plane was heading to Lodwar.

Emergency services have been sent to the scene.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2014, some 130,000 planes land and take off from Kenya each year, and the country has 35 operating airlines.

The IATA said Kenya’s air transport infrastructure quality ranks 6th out of 37 countries surveyed in Africa.

In October 2017 five passengers were killed when a helicopter crashed into Lake Nakuru, while in 2012 a helicopter carrying internal security minister George Saitoti crashed, killing all six passengers on board.

Kenya’s worst crash in recent years took place in 2007, when a Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi via Douala crashed into a swamp after take-off, killing all 114 passengers

In 2000 another Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi crashed into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after take-off, killing 169 people while 10 survived.