A Russian AN-26 aeroplane with at least 28 people on board has gone missing in Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east, news agencies cited regional authorities as saying.

It was flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana in the Kamchatka Peninsula when it did not make a scheduled call-in.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control while attempting to land.

Valentina Glazova, a spokeswoman for the local transport prosecutor’s office, said “search and rescue efforts are underway”: “All that is known at this time, what has been possible to establish, is that communication with the plane was interrupted and it did not land”.

Among those on board are six crew members and 22 passengers, including one child, local officials were quoted as saying.