Five people are believed to have been on board a private plane that crashed into residential properties in north Kent on Sunday, police said.

Officers were called to the scene in Broadwater Gardens, Farnborough, at around 2.30pm, the Metropolitan Police said. A spokesman said five people were believed to have been on board the twin-engined aircraft. They have not yet been accounted for. There was also no information on any casualties on the ground.

A spokesman for nearby Biggin Hill private airfield said the plane had taken off from the airfield but had then experience difficulties, made a Mayday call and was attempting an emergency landing. He gave no further details.

An eyewitness said the crash was next to the Princess Royal University Hospital which was on the approach to the airfield.

Katheryn Simnett, a resident of a nearby house, told the BBC: "We looked out of the bedroom window and we saw it (the plane) flying really low, as though it was in trouble. It swerved our house. It looked like it was trying to land in the nearby woods, the nearby fields... but it crashed into two of the houses on the block and we saw two big balls of black smoke and could smell the air fuel."

She believed the residents of one of the houses were on holiday, while those in the other escaped serious harm.