Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

Emergency and security personnel are seen through a heavy fog about 100 meters (328 feet) from the site of a plane crash near Almaty on Tuesday.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan's commercial capital of Almaty on Tuesday, news agencies quoted SCAT airline as saying.

Twenty-two people were killed in the crash, Yuri Ilyin, deputy head of the emergencies department in Almaty, told Reuters from the scene of the crash near the village of Kyzyl Tu.

The plane had been en route from the city of Kokshetau in northern Kazakhstan to Almaty in the southeast of the country when it crashed near the village of Kyzyl Tu, Interfax news agency said.

Almaty and the surrounding area were veiled in thick fog on Tuesday.

SCAT is based in Kazakhstan and operates extensive domestic services and some international flights.

It was the second plane crash in the Central Asian country and former Soviet republic in just a over a month.

On December 25, a military transport airplane crashed in bad weather near the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent, killing all 27 people on board.