Two people have died and 18 others were injured after a small plane crashed into a commercial building in southern California, officials say.
Ten people were taken to hospital with injuries, the Fullerton Police Department said in a post on X on Thursday afternoon. Eight others were treated for injuries and released at the scene.
The single-engine Van’s RV-10 crashed at 14:15PST (20:15GMT), according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Officials have provided no further details about how the crash occurred. It is unclear whether the two people who died were workers or were on board the plane.
Police say they are evacuating buildings in the area, and are asking the public to stay away from the crash site.
Congressman Lou Correa, who represents the area of Orange County, about 25 miles (40km) south of Los Angeles, said that the building that was struck is a furniture manufacturing business.
In a post on X, Correa said that at least a dozen of the victims are factory workers.
Aerial photos of the scene show parts of the plane inside the building. The crash also sparked a fire which was extinguished by fire crews.
Security footage recorded from a building across the street shows a fiery explosion, according to local news outlets.
“People are just shaken over the situation,” witness Mark Anderson told KRCA-TV.
“It was just a large boom, and then one of the people went out and said, ‘Oh my gosh, the building’s on fire.'”
The area where the plane crashed is near the Fullerton Municipal Airport, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Disneyland.
The plane appears to have been turning back to the airport shortly after takeoff, according to KRCA-TV.
Around 100 people were ultimately evacuated from the Michael Nicholas Designs furniture factory, according to the Orange County Register newspaper.
Juanita Ramirez, an employee, told the newspaper that she heard a loud bang before seeing a large ball of fire flying towards her.
“It felt like a dream,” she said.
This is the second plane to crash in the area in the past two months, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
On 25 November, another plane crashed into a tree roughly one block away from this most recent crash. No major injures were reported in that crash.
