A light aircraft crash into a high-rise building in Beijing's Chaoyang district on Friday killed one person and injured 13, the district government said on Saturday in a statement posted on its social media account.
The injured are receiving full medical treatment, and relevant authorities are investigating the incident, the statement said.
The aircraft struck the 108-storey CITIC Tower, also known as China Zun, the headquarters of CITIC Group in Beijing's central business district.
Witnesses told Reuters they heard a loud, explosion-like sound at around 6 p.m. local time before seeing emergency services converge on the scene.
"It was so loud - louder than fireworks," one courier said, adding that the aircraft appeared to be about the size of a car.
The impact reportedly shattered two glass panels on one of the building's upper floors.
An office worker in a nearby building said she later saw a large object covered by a blue tarp on a road beside the skyscraper, surrounded by police vehicles, ambulances and fire engines.
Authorities quickly sealed off roads leading to the tower, preventing pedestrians from approaching and discouraging photography.
Witnesses said police instructed people to delete photos and videos taken at the scene, while officers directed onlookers away from the area.
One courier said he had recorded footage showing part of the aircraft lodged in the building but later deleted the video because he feared repercussions from police.
Meanwhile, social media posts related to the incident were rapidly removed from Chinese platforms. Searches for the building on the Xiaohongshu (RedNote) platform returned only posts published before Friday.
The crash has raised questions because airspace over central Beijing is subject to some of China's strictest flight restrictions, making unauthorised aircraft activity highly unusual.
"It's very strange for a plane to fly into this area," one bystander told Reuters.
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