DHAKA: A Transasia Airways plane carrying 58 people from south-western Taiwan’s Kaohsiung city has crashed into two houses on Wednesday, killing dozens of people.

Transport minister Yeh Kuang-shih confirmed to reporters that 47 people are dead and 11 people are injured, reports The Straits Times.

According to local media, Flight GE222 bound for Magong city on Penghu Island, off Taiwan's west coast, was scheduled to depart from Kaohsiung at 4:00pm local time.

But the flight was held back by strong winds until 7.06pm local time when the pilot requested for take-off again.

But the air control tower soon lost contact with the pilot and realised later that the plane had crashed near a village on Penghu.

‘The whole sky turned red in an instant,’ one stunned Facebook user on the island described the burning wreckage, as many others wrote about hearing thundering sounds of explosion.

Typhoon Matmo slammed into Taiwan on Wednesday with heavy rains and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools.

BDST: 2046 HRS, JUL 23, 2014