At least 23 people were killed and dozens left unaccounted for after a Taiwanese TransAsia Airways plane with 58 passengers and crew on board crashed into a Taipei river bridge shortly after take-off on Wednesday.

Dramatic pictures taken by a motorist and posted on Twitter showed the plane cartwheeling over a motorway close to Taipei`s downtown airport soon after the turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft took off for the Taiwanese controlled island of Kinmen.

Television footage showed passengers wearing life jackets wading and swimming clear of the river. The crash was the airline`s second accident in the last six months.