An Air India flight bound for London Gatwick has crashed with 242 passengers and crew on board.

The incident arose just seconds after the plane took off from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat.

The flight was outlined as a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that fell in the populated area of Meghani in the city just minutes after leaving the runway at 1:17 pm local time.

Shocking and horrifying images shared on social media showed a huge trail of smoke being released from the crash site, which was engulfed in flames.

Other images showed chunks of the plane’s fuselage and tail protruding from the demolished building.

The cause of this crash is not yet known, but a video shared through social media showed the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.

Emergency services are currently en route to the scene in the hopes of finding survivors, but the scale of damage being portrayed in the early pictures suggests that there would be a high number of casualties.

The flight reached an altitude of 625 feet before it started to descend, as per the flight tracking service, Flightradar 24. The flight was expected to land today at Gatwick at 18:25 pm.