Dubai, Sep 3 (Agencies): A cargo aircraft belonging to the US courier United Parcel Services (UPS) crashed on Friday evening near Dubai international airport, a civil aviation official said.
The official United Arab Emirates WAM news agency said it was not known whether there were any casualties, but the satellite television channels Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera reported that members of the crew were killed.
WAM reported that the aircraft came down in an unpopulated area, and witnesses said it crashed near the Emirates Road highway.
A journalist said ambulances were seen heading for the area of the crash near a UAE air force base, and that a plume of smoke could be seen.
Police barred access roads to the area, letting only ambulances through.
An Emirati official said that the accident "has not affected air traffic in Dubai or road transport".
It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the plane.
Update
Two Crew Members Confirmed Dead
Dubai, Sep 3 (AFP): "The bodies of two of the pilots of the plane, a Boeing 747-400, were found at the scene at the crash," the official UAE news agency WAM quoted a brief civil aviation statement as saying.
It did not elaborate on the cause of the crash, but said "measures were taken to contain the fire which broke out on board."
Earlier reports had indicated the plane had crashed in an unpopulated area, but an AFP journalist said it had come down inside a military base near Dubai's Emirates Road.
Smoke could be seen rising from inside the base, which only ambulances were allowed to enter, he said.
An Emirati official told AFP that the accident "has not affected air traffic in Dubai or road transport."
The aircraft had taken off with two crew members from Dubai for Cologne, Germany, UPS said in a statement on its website.
"This incident is very unfortunate and we will do everything to find the cause," the statement quoted Bob Lekites, UPS' international operations manager, as saying.
Witnesses also reported seeing the plane on fire before it crashed.
In October 2009 a Sudanese Boeing 707 cargo plane crashed outside Dubai, killing all six crew members aboard.