ALMATY (Kazakhstan) • Twelve people died when a plane carrying 98 people crashed shortly after take-off from Kazakhstan's largest city yesterday morning, but many on board survived.

A video released by the Central Asian country's emergencies committee showed the 23-year-old plane operated by budget carrier Bek Air torn into pieces with its nose crushed into a collapsed house, as rescue crews worked to pull people from the wreckage.

The cause of the crash was unclear, but the authorities are looking at whether pilot error or technical failure were factors, Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar said.

The aircraft hit a concrete fence and a two-storey building after take-off from Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city and former capital.

It lost altitude at 7.22am, the Almaty International Airport said.

Mr Sklyar said the plane's tail hit the runway twice during take-off, indicating that it struggled to take off.

"Either this is a pilot error, or there were technical reasons," he said. "The aircraft split into two parts. Most of the passengers who died were in the front part."

One survivor told Associated Press (AP) the plane started shaking less than two minutes after take-off.

"At first the left wing jolted really hard, then the right. The plane continued to gain altitude, shaking quite severely, and then went down," said Mr Aslan Nazaraliyev.

Government officials said the plane underwent de-icing before the flight, but Mr Nazaraliyev recalled that the wings of the plane were covered in ice, and passengers who used emergency exits over the wings were slipping and falling.

Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 15, but the Interior Ministry later revised the figure downwards. Officials in the Almaty branch of the Kazakh Health Ministry could not explain why, but told AP the confusion was due to the "agitation" at the site of the crash.

Eight victims died at the scene, two while receiving medical attention at the airport and two in hospital. Victims included the captain Marat Muratbayev, as well as 79-year-old Rustam Kaidarov, a retired general who headed an association of former top military officials.

The Health Ministry said 53 people had been injured, nine of them children, adding that 10 adults were in critical condition.

The aircraft was identified as a Fokker 100. It was 23 years old but had passed safety checks in May, Kazakh authorities said. All Bek Air and Fokker 100 flights in Kazakhstan were suspended pending the investigation of the crash.

Kazakhstan's air safety record is far from spotless. In 2009, all Kazakh airlines - with the exception of flagship carrier Air Astana - were banned from operating in the European Union because they did not meet international safety standards. The ban was lifted only in 2016.

In March 2016, a Bek Air Fokker 100 plane with 116 passengers made an emergency landing after its landing gear failed to deploy but no one was injured.

A purported recording of communications between a dispatcher at Almaty airport and the Bek Air crew that was broadcast by Russia's REN TV showed that the dispatcher appeared to lose touch with the pilot and later warned the next plane to delay its take-off. "Astana 671, we do not know where the Fokker 100 is located," the dispatcher said.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pledged to provide families of the victims with compensation and tweeted that those responsible "will be severely punished in accordance with the law".

He also said a government commission had been set up to investigate the tragedy. The Interior Ministry meanwhile launched a criminal investigation into violations of air transport safety rules.

History of the Fokker 100

The Fokker 100 had few competitors in the 100-seat short-range regional jet class when it made its debut in 1986, and was snapped up by major airlines such as American Airlines, KLM, Air France and Swissair.

In the decades since, many airlines have retired the model, including Swiss regional carrier Helvetic Airways which phased out its Fokker 100s this year after 15 years of service.

The medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner - which has a length of 35.53m and a wing span of 28.08m - was the largest such aircraft built by Dutch manufacturer Fokker before it went bankrupt in 1996.

Demand for the aircraft fell significantly as an increasing number of similar aircraft entered the market. Production of the Fokker 100 was terminated in 1997, after 283 jets had been built.

In July, a Virgin Australia Fokker 100 suffered engine failure after take-off. The plane landed safely with no injuries to passengers.

Another Fokker 100 flying from Germany to France experienced engine failure upon take-off a year ago, and landed safely back in Hamburg just 33 minutes after it departed.