A fighter jet crashed in a suburban residential area near the airport in Shantou, Guangdong Province on Tuesday morning, injuring four people. The pilot ejected and landed safely.

The Ministry of National Defense said the J-7 pilot was flying a training mission, when a mechanical malfunction during its ascent caused the accident. The plane lost control and crashed into a building in an area near the coast, causing a fire, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

The injured are being treated and the cause of the accident is being investigated, the ministry told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The Shantou government first announced that a fire had occurred at 9:10 am. China Central Television (CCTV) initially quoted firefighters as saying that a military helicopter had crashed. Three hours later firefighters confirmed to CCTV that the crashed aircraft was a J-7 fighter.

One of the four injured, a 26-year-old woman, was severely injured, according to CCTV. Firefighters and police officers rushed to the site immediately after the accident and sent the injured to hospital for treatment.

The fire, which caused traffic congestion at a nearby road, was put out at about 11 am.

According to photos released by news portal websites, staff from the People's Liberation Army air force arrived at the scene soon after the crash.

Judging from the photos the crashed jet was a Chengdu J-7E fighter, which was developed from the obsolete Soviet MiG-21, according to Bai Wei, an aviation researcher and the former deputy chief editor of Aviation World.

The J-7 made its maiden flight in 1966 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and its production was later transferred to the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Over its more than four decades of production, the J-7 has been developed into more than 40 variants to cater to the needs of domestic and international markets.

The J-7 ceased to be one of the pillars of the air force or the PLA navy aviation units after more advanced fighters were commissioned. Early versions of the J-7 have been converted to supersonic target drones, according to official news reports.

"But due to the large numbers of the plane, it is impossible to retire the J-7 in the short term. The air force needs their pilots to maintain their flying hours at a low cost," Bai said in the interview, noting that the J-7 is a simple, cheap and reliable aircraft.

The engine of a two-seat trainer J-7 stopped working shortly after take-off at low altitude on May 6, 2010.

Before ejection, the two pilots adjusted the aircraft's flight path to make sure it would not hit residential areas. Only one pilot survived.