Puerto Ordaz (Venezuela), Sept. 13 (Reuters): A passenger plane owned by Venezuela’s state-run airline Conviasa crashed with about 50 people on board today, killing at least 13 as it came down just outside a steel mill.

The ATR-42 plane was on a domestic route between the Caribbean island of Margarita and the southern industrial city Puerto Ordaz when it crashed near the gates of the vast Sidor mill on the banks of the Orinoco river.

“We still don’t know the exact cause,” local governor Francisco Rangel Gomez told state TV, adding that the pilot had radioed warning the plane was in difficulty. “I hope we are able find more survivors.”

Jose Bonalde, head of fire services and the scene, told Reuters that 13 corpses had been removed from the plane.

A nearby Puerto Ordaz hospital received 21 injured people and two corpses from the crash site, where twisted and charred wreckage of the turboprop plane was still smouldering. Hospital director Yanitza Rodriguez said many of the survivors were seriously injured. Gomez put the number of survivors at at least 23. He said 51 people were on the Conviasa flight, while transport minister Francisco Garces earlier had said 47 were on board.