Aerial footage of the accident scene. Channel 9

A charter flight with five people on board has crashed into a major retail centre on Melbourne’s outskirts.

Witnesses say they say the plane come in fast and low before a fireball rose into the sky. Eyewitness Matthew Coulburn told ABC radio an “enormous” 200m fireball rose into the sky after the plane “nose-dived” and “took a very sharp turn into the building. There are also reports debris landed on Tullamarine Freeway, the city’s key northbound connection between the city and main airport.

The Beechcraft charter flight bound for King Island in Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, was taking off from the southern end of Melbourne’s Essendon airport at around 9am.

Victoria police superintendent Mick Frewen said the plane gained “a slight degree of altitude” and that the pilot issued a mayday call saying there was catastrophic engine failure.

—Matt Di Toro (@matt_ditoro) February 20, 2017

The fate of those on board and anyone inside the centre is as yet unconfirmed.

Victoria Police say they are trying to establish how many people were inside the DFO shopping complex, on the airport’s perimeter.

Essendon’s Direct Factory Outlet is visited by thousands of shoppers every day, but does not open until 10am.

The centre posted this statement on its Facebook page.

An hour after the accident occurred firefighters are still battling flames inside the centre, with the storage area for Focus on Furniture and JB Hi-Fi still alight.

Around 13 units and 60 firefighters have been dealing with the blaze.

The plane believed to be involved in the crash. Wikimedia Commons

The aircraft is registered to Australian Corporate Jet Centres, a charter company based at Essendon airport.

The airport is about 8km from Tullamarine and was Melbourne’s original international airport up until 1970, 13km from the city. It has two runways and is best remembered as the site where the Beatles touched down for their 1964 tour. Essendon Fields still runs as a public airport for commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation.

In recent years, part of the site has been developed into a retail hub, with the DFO site built just off the runway and right beside the tarmac.

The Beechcraft King Air is a popular private aircraft flown by hobby pilots and charter services all over the world. The twin prop aircraft is known for being fast and stable, and the modern versions have sophisticated avionics.

King Island is a remote but popular tourism destination famed for its beef and cheese.

Ambulance Victoria has denied it is one of their aircraft.

“Contrary to media reports the plane that has crashed at Essendon is not an Ambulance Victoria aircraft,” it tweeted.