A small medical transport plane crashed into several buildings in north-east Philadelphia on Friday evening, setting homes and vehicles ablaze and injuring people on the ground.

The plane had been on a medical transport mission, carrying a child patient and her mother, and four crew members.

“We know that there will be loss,” Pennsylvania Gov Josh Shapiro said during a news conference at the scene of the crash, calling it an “awful aviation disaster”.

Videos of the incident online show the plane coming down quickly and sparking a huge fireball.

All six people on board were Mexican, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X. The plane was travelling to Springfield, Missouri.

A spokesperson for Temple University Hospital-Jeanes in Philadelphia said it had treated six people who were injured on the ground during the crash.

Three were treated and released, while details are not yet known about the condition of the other three.

The plane left Northeast Philadelphia Airport at about 18:07 local time and crashed less than four miles (6.4km) away moments later, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported.

The first emergency calls went out at about 18:12, it added.

In a statement, Jared Solomon, a state representative for Northeast Philadelphia, said: “In a time of profound tragedy, I was inspired to witness hundreds of our first responders sprinting towards danger to ensure the safety of our neighborhood.”

Witnesses described shrapnel from the crash damaging cars and sending burning debris into the streets. Photos of the aftermath show burning cars mangled.

The crash happened just blocks from the Roosevelt Mall, a three-storey shopping center in a densely populated part of Philadelphia, the fifth biggest city in the US.

The area is filled with terraced housing and shops.

Fire officials said multiple homes caught fire in the area of Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, CBS reported.

One man who spoke with CBS said he was driving in the area when he heard a whirring sound and then a loud explosion.

“Everyone just started screaming,” he said.

Another witness told local media the explosion “lit up the whole sky”.

“I just saw a plane basically hit the building and it exploded. The sky lit up and I pulled over and basically, it was just real bad around here,” the witness told WPVI-TV, describing the crash as feeling like an earthquake.

Ryan Tian, 23, told The Philadelphia Inquirer he was getting dinner when he saw a “massive fireball” that turned the sky orange. “I thought we were getting attacked by something,” he said.

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