ASTANA, December 25. /TASS/. The crash of a passenger plane in Kazakhstan has killed 38 people, Tengrinews said, citing the republic’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozymbaev who is heading the government’s commission investigating the incident’s causes.

"According to the deputy premier, as of now, there are 38 fatalities," the news outlet said.

Bozymbaev noted that the bodies were severely burned. "The bodies are in poor condition, mostly burned, they were all collected and will be at a morgue, they will need to be identified," Tengrinews quoted him as saying.

The deputy prime minister added that 29 people had been hospitalized. "There are 29 injured, including two children, they were hospitalized. About 11 of them are in stable severe condition, while the rest are in moderate condition," he said, noting that "there are no Kazakh citizens among them."

According to Bozymbaev, passenger lists include six Kazakh citizens, and there is one woman among the injured whose citizenship is being established. He noted that investigations are being conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Interior Ministry, and Kazakh aviation authorities. "Our Azerbaijani colleagues are on site, they will also take part," he added.

An Embraer 190 passenger plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), which was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau earlier on Wednesday. According to the latest data by the Kazakh Emergencies Ministry obtained from the airline, there were 5 crew members and 62 passengers onboard the plane, including nationals of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.