A small aircraft crashed onto the A2 motorway near Magdeburg on Friday and burst into flames, killing both people on board, according to WELT. The outlet reported the deaths as two, and other German newsrooms carried the same account of the accident.
The crash site lies northeast of Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, FOCUS online reported. WELT put the time of its report at just after 5 p.m. local time on Friday.
Several German outlets, including BILD, tagesschau.de and T-Online, described the aircraft as a light plane that came down on the highway and then caught fire. The reports available did not specify the type of aircraft, its origin or destination, or whether anyone on the road was hurt.
The A2 is one of Germany's main east-west motorways and carries heavy traffic, which makes any crash on the carriageway a serious matter for emergency services and for drivers in the area. Details on closures, diversions or the response on the ground were not included in the material available.
German authorities had not issued a statement on the cause in the reporting summarized here, and no explanation for the crash has been given.
What to watch next: official statements from police and aviation investigators, which are expected to address the cause of the crash and the condition of the motorway.