The plane crashed into a poor village near an upscale neighbourhood in the garrison city that is home to the army's headquarters, creating a fireball that lit up the night sky and terrified residents.

"We have received 17 dead bodies including 12 civilians and five crew members," said local rescue spokesman Farooq Butt, adding that a further 12 people had been injured in the accident near the capital Islamabad.

One resident told AFP that the crash happened around 2am.

"I woke to the sound of a huge explosion. I stepped out of my house and saw huge flames and we rushed to the site," said Mohammad Sadiq.

"People were screaming. We tried to help them but the flames were too high and the fire too intense, so we could not do anything. The dead includes seven members of one family and most of them were burned to death."

In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from remote northern Pakistan to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.

The deadliest air disaster on Pakistani soil was in 2010, when an Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into the hills outside Islamabad while coming in to land, killing all 152 on board.

***

A trainer plane crashed on early Tuesday morning in Pakistan's eastern district of Rawalpindi, killing at least seven people and injuring several others, the local media reports. 

Local media quoted rescue sources as saying that the jet crashed at Jabbi village located on the outskirts of Rawalpindi city and destroyed at least four houses which caught fire after the crash.

Rescue teams, police and security forces have reached the site, and are moving bodies and the injured to hospitals.

An emergency has been declared in all the hospitals in Rawalpindi city and neighboring capital city Islamabad.

According to the reports, those killed include two pilots of the jet and two children.

The death toll might rise further as several of the injured are in critical condition, the reports said.

More about: Pakistan