Taiwan's aviation authority said on Wednesday a commercial flight with 58 people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into a river in the island's capital of Taipei.

About 16 people were rescued, civil aeronautics authorities told a media briefing. Thirty-one Chinese mainland tourists were among those on board, the local tourism bureau said.

Pictures on the web show the plane in the water about 100 meters (yards) from the shore of Keelung River.

Local media said the flight from Taipei to Jinmen lost contact with flight controllers at about 10:55 am and the fuselage landed in the Keelung River.

The plane was identified as a French-made twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 with a two-pilot air crew.

Last July, 48 people were killed when a 70-seat ATR 72 turboprop plane of TransAsia Airways crashed near the runway while trying to land on the small island of Penghu, west of Taiwan island, following a typhoon earlier in the day.