Rescuers work at the site of a passenger plane crash outside Almaty, Kazakhstan on Friday. Photo: AFP

At least 15 people were killed early Friday when a passenger plane crashed during takeoff in Kazakhstan.

According to the Committee for Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan, the Bek Air plane with 95 passengers and five crew members on board was bound for Almaty from the capital Nur-Sultan.

The committee said the aircraft crashed into a building during takeoff and the injured included six children.

Rescue efforts are underway at the scene, it added.

The Fokker 100 aircraft, operated by Bek Air, got into trouble shortly after departing from Almaty on a pre-dawn flight en route to the capital Nur-Sultan.

It lost altitude during takeoff and broke through a concrete fence before hitting the two-story building, Kazakhstan's Civil Aviation Committee said. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

"Before crashing, the aircraft touched the runway with its tail twice, the gear was retracted," Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar told reporters.

"A commission... will establish whether this was pilot error or technical issues. The runway was in an ideal condition."

A Reuters reporter saw the battered remains of the front of the plane and other separate parts of the fuselage scattered around the wreckage of what was left of the house.

A survivor told news website Tengrinews she heard a "terrifying sound" before the plane started losing altitude.

"The plane was flying at a tilt. Everything was like in a movie: screaming, shouting, people crying," she said.

Kazakhstan's interior ministry said it was investigating a possible breach of flight operation and safety rules, a standard legal procedure. There was thick fog in the area at the time of the crash.

Kazakhstan's aviation committee said it was suspending all flights by carrier Bek Air and those of Fokker 100 aircraft pending the results of the investigation.

Another survivor, businessman Aslan Nazaraliyev, told the Vremya newspaper that the plane started shaking while gaining altitude about two minutes after takeoff.

"At some point we started falling, not vertically, but at an angle. It seemed like control over the plane had been lost," he said.

Authorities cordoned off the crash site in the village of Almerek, just beyond the end of the runway.

The airport remained operational with other planes seen taking off after the crash.

In the airport at Nur-Sultan, relatives of the passengers were being briefed on their fate and offered flights to Almaty.

"Those responsible will face tough punishment in accordance with the law," Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tweeted, expressing condolences to the victims and their families.

Tokayev declared December 28 a national day of mourning.

The plane involved in the crash was built in 1996.