A fire broke out at a hotel in the Philippine capital today, killing four people and trapping several on the fifth floor, a rescue official said.

About 20 people were trapped in the Manila Pavilion Hotel, Johnny Yu, chief of the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, told radio station dZMM. “We have reports coming in from the Bureau of Fire Protection that they saw from the fifth floor 19 to 20 trapped victims but they are alive,” Yu said. 

It was not immediately clear how the fire started. The hotel is owned by Waterfront Philippines Inc.

In another unfortunate incident, a small passenger plane carrying five people crashed into a house shortly after takeoff north of Manila yesterday, killing all those onboard and five people on the ground, officials said. The Piper-23 Apache plane took off from the airport in Plaridel town in Bulacan province then crash-landed and smashed into the house, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesman Eric Apolonio and police said.

All five Filipinos on board the six-seat plane were killed, and the crash killed five people on the ground, Plaridel police chief Supt. Julio Lizardo said by phone. The crash ignited a fire in a house that was hit by the aircraft, he said.

Two other people on the ground were injured by burning debris, Lizardo said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

All the aircraft operated by the transport and courier company were grounded while investigators tried to determine the cause of the crash.