A small plane crashed in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Wednesday, killing the two people on board, a local public security official confirmed Thursday.

The bodies have not yet been identified.

No one on the ground was injured when the ill-fated plane plummeted into corn fields on the outskirts of provincial capital Harbin at 4:50?PM on Wednesday, said Dong Jun, a police officer in Binxian county.

The nearest village, Guobaotun, is 1,500 meters away.

Dong said the two people on board were already dead when rescuers arrived at the site about 10 minutes after the crash.

He said the plane was seven meters long with a wingspan of around 12 meters, but did not give further details.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2006)