A small passenger plane crashed at Belgium's Charleroi airport yesterday, killing five people and closing the international hub used by Ryanair and other low-cost carriers.

The Cessna plane had problems on takeoff and tried to return to Charleroi for an emergency landing but crashed on the side of the runway.

The five killed were three young children, their mother and their grandfather, and all were Belgian nationals. Charleroi, also known as Brussels South Charleroi, is the country's second international airport after Brussels' Zaventem airport.