The plane crashed while it was fighting a forest fire in Kahramanmaras province of southern Turkey.

Governor Ömer Faruk Çoşkun said that many units were dispatched to the area where the plane crashed.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said that five Russian servicemen and three Turkish citizens were on board the fire-fighting plane that crashed in Turkey, without giving any details on casualties.

Wildfires began in Turkey's Mediterranean region in late July and have incinerated thousands of acres of forests, mostly in the seaside provinces of Muğla and Antalya.