This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A supervisor at Sochi airport in Russia has died during an emergency response after a landing plane careered off the end of the runway into a riverbed and caught fire, officials have said.

The health ministry said 18 people were injured in the accident, which occurred at about 3am local time (01.30 BST) as the Utair-operated Boeing 737 from Moscow, carrying 164 passengers and six crew members, was landing.

The airport said the fire was extinguished within eight minutes.

The transportation minister, Yevgeny Ditrikh, said airport shift supervisor Vladimir Begiyan, who was one of the first responders to the accident, died after having a heart attack at the scene.

The cause of the crash has not been determined.