China flight lost 26,000 feet in under 3 minutes before crash, no sign of survivors: Report

Although there has been no exact figure on the casualty, media reports said there was no sign of survivors.

The airline has deeply mourned the loss of passengers and crew, without specifying how many people had been killed.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft left China's Kunming at 1:11 pm, FlightRadar24 data showed. The flight was scheduled to land in Guangzhou at 3:05 p.m.

However, the website showed no data for the flight after 2:22 pm.

The plane, which was six years old, had been cruising at an altitude of 29,100 feet at 0620 GMT,  Flightradar24 reported.

Just over two minutes and 15 seconds later, data showed it had descended to 9,075 feet.

In another 20 seconds, its last tracked altitude was 3,225 feet.

The 132 people on board included 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

State broadcaster CCTV said the crash "caused a mountain fire" which was later extinguished.

Hundreds of firefighters were sent to the accident site in Teng county near the city of Wuzhou, state media reported. Even nearby villagers too rushed to help.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was "shocked" over the airline crash and ordered an immediate investigation into its cause.