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A plane has crashed on top of a lorry unloading outside a branch of Lidl supermarket in Tires, Portugal - killing all four people on board and at least one person on the ground.

At least one house is said to be on fire - as well as other vehicles in the car park - and more than 80 firefighters have rushed to the scene.

Unconfirmed reports said that the person who died on the ground was the driver of the truck who was trapped - while at least four other people are said to have suffered minor injuries and breathing difficulties.

The first video footage to emerge from the crash scene shows a lorry fiercely ablaze - with explosions heard going off causing people to run.

The aircraft is said to have exploded in mid-air - at around 11am local time.

The plane - registered in Switzerland to a company that supplies orthopedic implants - crashed shortly after take off, en route to the south of France.

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A witness told Portuguese TV the owner of a house which caught fire in the tragedy was able to run out of her property with her baby in her arms.

Another lady, known only as Alexandra, who was inside the Lidl supermarket, said: “Everything started shaking like an earthquake and people began to scream and run in all directions.”

The plane that came down in Tires - about 20km (15 miles) west of capital Lisbon - was on its way to Marseilles in France.

The plane is said to be a Piper PA-31TR Cheyenne II which left Geneva three days ago before making a stop in the southern French port city of Marseilles and continuing on to Tires.

A Civil Protection source told the local newspaper: "Everything indicates that an explosion occurred in the air."

It came down near the Lidl Supermarket in Tires near the coastal town of Cascais 20 miles west of Lisbon.

An official source of the GPIAAF - Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Rail Accidents - told local media that the aircraft crashed about 2,000 metres after taking off from Tires, travelling towards Marseilles.

A spokesman for Cascais Aerodrome said in a statement: “Cascais Aerodrome can confirm that at 11.05am local time, the flight of private operator Symbios Orthopedic, a P-31 light aircraft that had taken off from Cascais Aerodrome bound for Marseilles with three passengers and one crew member on board, suffered an accident outside of the aerodrome airspace.

“The aerodrome immediately activated its emergency plans and in this way activated an internal and external response to this accident.”

(Image: wikipedia)

One journalist, Bernardo Ferrao, said shortly after 1.30pm that the death toll had risen to five - with one person on the ground having been killed.

The victims who died on board the plane are said to be a pilot and three passengers.

The pilot is being reported as being Swiss, while police believe his three passengers to be French.

Meanwhile Lidl has confirmed that none of its workers were injured in the crash.

The wounded have been taken to hospital "as a precaution", police said.

(Image: Twitter)

Several vehicles in the car park have caught fire - and the spot where the crash happened is 150 metres from a local primary school.

One eyewitness tweeted: "A plane just fell all around us.

"I saw the plane going down!!

"After they called the Fire Department and I think it fell more or less on top of the Lidl."

(Image: Facebook)

Numerous eyewitnesses have taken to social media to report what they have seen.

One, called J Pardal, said: "Plane crashed up here in the LIDL."

Another, called Maria, said: "The plane fell near my house, smells like intense burning."

And one called Babi said: "A plane crashed at the foot of my FDCC (council) home. I could see the smoke through my window."

Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has arrived at the scene.

Meanwhile Tries Airport has been closed to traffic.