GENEVA: Two Swiss and two Austrian nationals were killed on Saturday when their small plane crashed in the Swiss Alps, police said.

The plane came down in the picturesque area near the Gletscherspitze peak, at an altitude of over 3,000 metres (10,000 feet), in the southern Swiss canton of Wallis, regional police said in a statement.

Wallis police said a witness had first called to report seeing the plane falling from the sky at 12:25 pm (1025 GMT), and had called back a few minutes later to say smoke was rising from the crash site.—AFP