A Mozambican Airlines airplane carrying 28 passengers and six crew members went missing en route from Mozambique to Angola on Friday, the airline said.

Flight TM470 took off from Maputo at 09H26 GMT and had been due to land in the Angolan capital Luanda at 13H10 GMT, but never arrived, the airline said in a statement.

"Initial information suggests it might have landed in Rundu, in northern Namibia near the border with Botswana and Angola."

"LAM airlines, aeronautical and airport authorities are trying to establish contact to confirm the information," it added.

Company spokesman Norberto Mucopa could not confirm the nationalities of the people on board nor the time of the last contact with the aircraft.

"The last contact was in the north of Namibia," he told Agence France Presse.