A Chinese military transport plane, carring 40 people crashed during a mission in east China's Anhui Province Saturday afternoon, a military source said.

A local official said at least five people were killed.

The source did not give any information about casualties, and said a work group from Beijing has arrived at the scene to organize rescue operations.

The cause of the crash is being investigated.

An official at the Anhui provincial government office said the accident occurred at about 4 p.m. (0800 GMT) in Yaocun, a village in Anhui's eastern Guangde county, and that five bodies had been recovered.

The official refused to give his name.

Guangde, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Shanghai, encompasses a handful of low mountain villages famous for producing bamboo furniture.