Follow our live updates on the TransAsia plane carrying 53 passengers and 5 crew members that crashed in Taipei's Keelung River on Wednesday.

Basic facts about aircraft ATR-72

Highlights:

** 31 mainland tourists aboard, including 3 children, with 6 confirmed dead

** 6 mainland fatalities identified - Hu Shaolin, Li Yulan, Zhang Xiaoyan, Wang Qinghuo, Wang Zhangsheng and Wu Huali

** 31 confirmed dead with 12 others missing and 15 injured, altogether 53 passengers and 5 crew members aboard

** Hotline: 2720-5892, 0592-7227777 (reserved for mainland tourists)

** President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang order rapid response and assistance

Video: Plane with 53 passengers aboard crashes into river.

Map of Taiwan capital Taipei, locating flight path and crash site of TransAsia flight GE235 which crashed into the Keelung River with 58 people on board on Wednesday. File / Agencies

01:05 am

Bodies of pilot and co-pilot of the wrecked plane were retrieved, according to Taiwan's central news agency.

00:50 am, Feb 5

Death toll rises to 31

Another 12 remained missing and 15 injured, according to Taiwan's central news agency.

Emergency personnel retrieve the body of a passenger from the wreckage of a TransAsia Airways turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft after it was crashed in a river, in New Taipei City. [Photo / Agencies]

10:30 pm

Wreckage recovered from river

The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered from the river in New Taipai City, according to Reuters.

Rescuers search inside the wreckage after it was recovered from the river. [Photo / Agencies]

The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered from the river. [Photo / Agencies]

10:16 pm

Death toll rises to 26

Another 17 remained missing, 15 injured, according to Taiwan's central news agency.

10:05 pm

Rescuers used a crane to hoist the wrecked plane from a shallow river in Taipei.

A screen shot from Taiwan broadcaster TVBS.

9:51 pm

Xi orders assistance

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered obtaining accurate information on the TransAsia Airways airplane that crashed into a Taipei river on Wednesday as quickly as possible and providing assistance in treating the injured people.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, also ordered caring for the relatives of passengers and properly manage other matters.

The Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee has sent a team to Taiwan to handle related affairs.