A search and rescue operation continued into Thursday night after a small plane crashed into a mangrove forest in Chachoengsao earlier in the afternoon.

According to a flight tracking site, the Thai Flying Service Cessna Caravan with nine people onboard left Suvarnabhumi airport at 2.46pm, bound for Ko Mai Chee airport in Trat province. It reportedly lost contact with the Suvarnabhumi control tower at around 3pm. 

The crash occurred at 3.18pm behind Wat Khao Din in Bang Pakong district.

The wreckage of the small plane was found in the mud in a mangrove forest near the temple. Women’s clothes and a photo of three foreign women were found at the site.

The nine people onboard were reported to be five Chinese and two Thai passengers, and a Thai pilot and co-pilot.

Police officers from Bang Pakong station said search teams were collecting the wreckage, but no trace of the plane’s occupants had been found as of Thursday evening.

The search is difficult because of water at the site, near the mouth of the Bang Pakong River, according to local media reports.