Plane crashes on to Italian beach full of 'screaming' holidaymakers

A plane has crashed onto a beach packed with holidaymakers in Italy.

Tourists ran for their lives as they saw the light aircraft plummeting towards the shoreline at Santa Severa beach, near Rome.

The single-engine plane landed at the water's edge where families and children had been playing, and onlookers were shocked there were no fatalities.

According to the Daily Mail, eye witness Adriana Piccio said: "It is a miracle no-one was killed. The plane came from nowhere and seemed to be in trouble.

"It could be seen losing height and people screamed and scattered out of the way when they realised it was heading for the beach. Everyone was screaming which at least warned people to get out of the way.

"It crashed with quite a bump and the nose went into the sand just by the water after the wheels dug into the beach.

"Then some swimmers went to confront the pilots but they realised they were injured and called an ambulance."

Pictures of the scene were uploaded to social media.

Atterraggio di fortuna in spiaggia per un aereo ultraleggero Foto http://t.co/hSXrKmY2cG pic.twitter.com/8aHf17EHgt
— Corriere della Sera (@Corriereit) May 31, 2015

Santa Severa is a popular sea resort on the Via Aurelia, 31 miles north of Rome.

The news of the crash comes just days after a pilot was killed after colliding with another plane in front of shocked onlookers at an Italian air show.

According to the Standard, beachgoers looked on in horror as the planes collided near Italy's Adriatic shore, before plunging to the sea.

One pilot was found dead under the fuselage of his plane about a mile offshore, while the other was seen making a crash-landing on a beach near Tortoreto, a town in central Italy.