Lilongwe, June 17 (IANS): Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has said that his government has engaged foreign support to help investigate the plane crash that claimed the life of the country's Vice President Saulos Chilima and other officials.

The local military experts were already in the middle of a preliminary probe, Chakwera said at a state funeral ceremony, stressing the need for a thorough investigation to address some questions troubling Malawians and the President himself.

"We have already engaged some countries to help conduct a thorough investigation to establish what went wrong for that plane to crash," Chakwera said in front of thousands packed in the country's 40,000-seat Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, reported Xinhua news agency.

The government has called for peaceful mourning amid some signs of tension following conspiracy theories making rounds.

Hundreds of security officers have since been deployed to tighten security in the capital and Ntcheu district where Chilima will be buried on Monday, about 165 km south of Lilongwe.

The plane, a Dornier 228-202K, crashed near Mzuzu City in northern Malawi due to bad weather conditions shortly after it failed to land at an airport in the city and was returning to Lilongwe.