A firefighting plane of Turkey's General Directorate of Forestry crashed in the southern province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reported.

Contact was lost with the plane which had been rented from Russia to help in Turkey's effort to contain a forest fire in Kahramanmaras, Governor Omer Faruk Coskun told Anadolu Agency.

A large number of search and rescue teams were dispatched to the region, added Coskun.

The cause of the crash remains unknown.

There were seven people—including five foreigners—on the plane, and their fate is unknown.

However, the Russian law enforcement agencies informed that the crashed plane did not belong to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.