Four people have been killed after a small Russian passenger plane with 14 passengers and two crew on board made an emergency landing in a forest in southeastern Siberia, the emergency ministry said.

The L-410 aircraft flying from the city of Irkutsk came down 4 kilometres from its destination, Kazachinkoye village, the Investigative Committee law enforcement agency said.

According to preliminary reports by local emergency services, there was an equipment failure, which the crew reported before making the hard landing, Interfax news agency reported.

Initial media reports said 11 people had been trapped inside the aircraft after it came down. Footage circulated on social media, purportedly of the landing scene, showed rescue workers with stretchers shining torches near a river at night.

Source: AAP