Small aircraft crashes into Beijing's tallest building

An aircraft about the size of a car crashed into Beijing's tallest building, CITIC Tower, on Friday, two bystanders told ​Reuters, as police closed off roads around the skyscraper and stopped passersby ‌from filming the scene.

The building, known as CITIC Tower or China Zun, is a 108-storey skyscraper in Beijing's central business district. It is the headquarters of the state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group.

There ​was a heavy police presence at the site, with some approach roads closed ​to cars. Police prevented some people from taking pictures and asked ⁠others to delete those they had taken while ushering people away from the ​building.

Two glass panels on a high floor were damaged. There was no immediate official ​comment. Beijing's municipal government did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters outside of business hours.

A courier who Reuters spoke to near the building said he had rushed ​over to CITIC Tower around 6 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) from a nearby ​location after hearing a loud crash as an aircraft about the size of a car hit ‌the ⁠building.

He said he had shot a video of the aircraft sticking out of the building, but later deleted it because he was scared of getting caught by the police.

Another courier, whom Reuters spoke to said ​he had come to ​the scene after ⁠seeing unverified social media images showing wreckage of a small aircraft on a road next to the building.

Social media posts of ​the building on Friday were quickly removed from Chinese social ​media. A ⁠search of the building's name on the Xiaohongshu app returned only posts dated Thursday.

Dozens of police cars and several fire trucks lined the roads around the building.

A police officer ⁠told ​Reuters journalists to depart from the scene. Asked ​why they had to leave, the police officer said: "We all know why!"